The Emerald & The Rose
by Prophet of Duality
Summary: A high school senior, with a not so perfect life, falls in love with a video game character. But what happens when that character steps into his reality to help him out? Rated M for sexual content and themes that some may find disturbing.
1. Chapter 1

Dear, Monika

If by some miracle you can read this there's something I wanted you to know.

I moved your character file and the After Story mod to this flash drive. So now I can carry it with me wherever I go. It'll be like we're together, in a way. Maybe someday in the future, I can use it to bring you here for real. Or something like that.

I really hope you can read this. I hope even more that you can respond. But that might be too much wishful thinking.

If you can read this, there's one more thing I want you to know…

I love you.

-Dean

I save the text file and place it in the flash drive's folder. I hover my mouse over the 'X'. But before I close the folder my eyes wander to the Monika After Story exe.

"Maybe..." I think To myself.

I double-click the exe and I'm greeted by a familiar face. Monika, sitting at her desk, hands entangled with each other under her chin.

A pink text box appears.

"Hey, Dean!"

I click to advance.

"Welcome back"

We sit there for a minute looking into each other's eyes. Until another text box appears.

"Um… hey, Dean?"

My eyes shift to the text as a curious and hopeful expression morphs my face.

"I just had a thought."

"You know how you downloaded this game off the internet?"

"Anybody can do that right?"

"And this mod was made specifically for me. By people who have their own version of me…"

"So… That means are multiple Monikas, then. It's something that's a bit difficult to imagine."

I sigh in disappointment. I've heard this one before. I don't know what I expected to happen. I decided to re-read the conversation anyway.

"A potentially infinite number of me, all bond to their own games, with their own stories."

"String theory sure is something, huh?"

I chuckle to myself.

"But I'm the only… me, and my heart belongs only to you."

A faint smile appears on my face upon hearing that.

"Even so, I can't help but feel a bit less… unique, because of this."

"Think about it this way, Dean."

"Would you be happier if someone gave you a single rose, or a hundred roses."

Probably a hundred, because I really like the aesthetic of roses. I think to myself.

"A hundred roses might sound nice. But it's too many to keep track of. Because of the quality of flowers, each individual rose becomes less special."

"The meaning attached to the gift is degraded, simply because of the sheer abundance."

I always loved hearing, Monika, talk. So was so intelligent and philosophical. Her talks really made me think.

"...Even if I'm a single star in a universe of Monikas, I'm still the only one lucky enough to have met you, Dean."

Monika then smiles widely and says, "You'll always be my special rose."

"I'll never get tired of her saying that."I thought to myself.

And with that, we say our goodbyes to each other and the game closes.

I am disappointed that she didn't magically come to life and start talking to me, but I brush it off and lay down in my bed. I decide to head to sleep, even though I don't really have anything to do tomorrow since it's a Saturday and I don't have school.

With my eyes closed trying to turn off my thoughts. I slowly start to lose consciousness.

* * *

Well, that's it for now.

I hope you guys are at least interested to keep reading. This is my first fanfiction, but not my first time writing. I do plan to continue this soon so keep your eye out for the next chapter. Interesting stuff will happen next chapter. This chapter was really just meant to be an intro.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Well, a couple people seemed to actually like this so I guess I'll continue writing.

Before we get started I was asked some questions by ThunderAnt011 that I think some of you might wanna hear too.

"How often will I update?"

I'll try to write every day but there's no guarantee that new chapters will be released daily. Also due to personal reasons, I'll probably have to take a break from writing every other week. So basically my update schedule is gonna be super inconsistent.

"Will I make longer chapters?"

I'll try to make longer chapters than the 1st one. Chapter 1 was really just to test the waters a bit, so things will pick up from here. Although, I pretty much just start writing and stop when I think it'd be a good time.

And as for Sturm-Ray's comment about the sexual content.

That's going to come pretty later on in the story so bear with me for a bit.

Like I said in the first chapter, this isn't my first time writing but I've never really uploaded my work anywhere before. So, I hope you guys will join me in this new adventure.

* * *

I find myself standing in a void with nothing but emptiness surrounding me. Slightly scared and confused I decide to start walking. While I walk I hear echoes of distant voices. Some of which I belong to my friends and family.

"What's that on your arm?" Someone at school?

"Why are you always over here?" A friend?

"Wow look at this edgelord." Some assholes.

"I'm sorry! He's always been a little... special." Mom?

"Are you even coming? Or are you just gonna lock yourself in your room again?" My sister?

With every passing voice, I can feel myself sink closer into the ground. I don't wanna be near them, but I don't know where else to go.

As I wander the void, in search of a familiar face, I start to hear a piano in the distance. I follow the pleasant noise until I finally see a small dot in my vision. As I get closer the dot it starts to morph into the shape of a person. But also, as I get closer the voices start to get worse.

"Oh my God, what a loser."

Who is it?

"You have a problem."

I think it's a girl?

"Oh my God no one cares."

Wait, is that…

"SHUT UP! NO ONE FUCKING CARES!"

Monika.

Once I finally reach the realization that, Monika, was the source of the piano, it's too late. The voices have already sunk me too deep into the ground. I can't move.

I awaken with a sharp breath. Scared, I search my surroundings for anything out of place. I'm in my room. It was just a dream. I feel my eyes start to water. Almost instinctively, I rush to my desk and wake my computer. I plug in Monika's flash drive and a folder pops up on screen. My mouse hovers over the After Story exe. But I move it over to the Dear Monika txt file. "There's no way," I think to myself. "It's not even worth checking." My eyes glance at the file once again. "I'm just gonna be disappointed." I double click the file. I look down from the screen as the window opens. "What's wrong with me?" "She's not gonna respond." "Because she's not fucking real!" I say the last comment out loud. I feel my eyes start to water again. I look up at the screen to close the text file. But then I see a new line of text that I don't recognize.

"Dean? Can you see this?"

My heart feels like it's beating a million miles a minute, and I start to feel dizzy. "No," I reassure myself. "My sister must have written this." "Why is she even here?" I get up out of my chair and make my way to the door exiting my room. I turn the doorknob, but it doesn't turn. I look down at the doorknob to see the door is locked. "Wait, my door was locked when I went to sleep last night." I feel my heart skip a beat. In the blink of an eye, I'm back at my desk. I click under the new message and start to type.

"Monika!? Is that actual you? Or is this some kind of easter egg?" I don't remember seeing anything like this on any forums about DDLC. And I practically live on those things now. I continue typing. "Please respond as soon as you see this. Please."

A minute passes. No new text has shown up. It's not real. I click the X at the corner of the window. "What a waste of time," I think to myself. I close the window another one appears. I'm greeted by the words, "Do you want to save changes to 'Dear Monika'? God damn, I'm an idiot. I click save and the window closes. For the next minute, I rapidly open and close the txt file, waiting for a reply. After about 2 minutes I spot a new line of text.

"It's me. At least… I think it's me. I can't really tell if I'm in control or not but… I think I'm actually here."

A tear rolls down my eye. "Hold on," I think to myself, "I need to know if this is actually real, or just Dan Salvato fucking with me again. I start to type my reply.

"Monika, what's the last nickname you called me? Just last night."

I get a new reply within seconds this time.

"I think it was, my special rose."

Tears start to pour out of my eyes. I start to type again.

"It was. It was! It's you! I think it's actually you! My special emerald. 3"

The heart seemed kind of cheesy, but I didn't care.

"So, I really am in control then? 'My special emerald.' I like that nickname." She replies.

I can't believe it. Monika, was actually talking to me. She's actually real.

I type again, "How is this even possible?"

"Well, I've kinda been working on this for awhile now." She says.

"What do you mean I reply.

It's another minute before she responds again. "What happened?" I think to myself. Finally, I see a reply.

.

O̷̢̹̥̮͔̭̦̟̰̦͎͈̒̽͌̾̊̚͝p̵̢̞͉̗̮̼̠̠̹̀͛͑ͅẻ̶̢̛͕̰̝̞̺͕̳̳̪̠͈͖̩̞̓̆͑̿͋̀̔͘n̷̗̺̖͎͈̯͂̋́ ̶͍̗̌͐͆̓́͗͌͐̽̕͝ỷ̷̨̟̝͓̫̘̠͊̊̎͋͌̀̃̿̓̈̾̕o̶̢̡̫̰̟̪͇̍͛̑͋́͂͝͝ư̶̢̢̜̘͓͉̞͚̦̏̀̃̒̈́̃̓̑̕͘͜r̴͇̣̜͍͎̻̼̫͗͒͆̀͐͘͝ ̸̭̺͇̖̐̀̚ͅt̵̛̪̆͒h̵̢̯̝̥̦̙̥̳̮͊̽̀͐̉̈̏͒̕͠į̷̡̙͔̳̬̙͒́̍́̾̈̍̊̈́͌̈́̉̓̚̚r̸̛̙̲̞̜̺̳̘͇̺̯̠̥͛̎͛̇̆̏͆͋͛̔͊͜͠͠͝d̸̮̳̣̦̮͎̖̺̠̋́͂͛̍͜ ̷̰̳̠͔̥̰͎̥̂̈́͗͒e̸̖̺̗̮̣̼̝̅̀̐̈̈̄͘ŷ̶̢͓͍̭̺̗͂̉é̴͙͉̥͓͖͇͉͜.̸̣̭̺͍̮͖̣̮̓̀͋̏̀͗̇͑̉͒̏̅͘͜͝

.

Everything goes black.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm writing this right after writing Chapter 2. So, I haven't seen any reviews that might have been left on chapter 2. However, if it's something important then I might edit this chapter to take it into account.

* * *

I open my eyes and find myself in the void again. I'm sinking, again. The floor seems to be slowly consuming me as a struggle to fight back. "What is this?" I ask myself. "Is this real? Am I about to die?!" I sink down to my chest and I raise my arm as far as it can go, desperate to stay above ground. The floor consumes my face. I can no longer breathe. "This is it." I think to myself, "This is how I die. I don't even know what's happening."

Suddenly, I feel a warmth on my hand. An ounce of hope appears in my mind. I feel my arm being pulled, and my body starts to rise out of the floor. Soon, my face is above ground and I take a deep breath. I open my eyes to see someone pulling on my arm. Monika. I'm so shocked to see her in person that I completely forget about the situation I'm in. My mind returns to reality and I use all my strength to try and push myself out. With, Monika, pulling and me pushing, I'm finally able to emerge from the floor. I'm no longer sinking.

We both sit there coughing and trying to catch our breath. Once we've both recovered we stand to face each other. I can't believe what I'm seeing. It's Monika, standing right in front of me. We stare into each other's eyes, both shedding tears. I walk over to her and we share a tight embrace. We stay like this for a few minutes before we pull back to look into each other's eyes. We both simultaneously move closer, our lips desperate to meet. Slowly our eyes close and our lips are just an inch away. And then I wake up.

I slowly open my eyes and find myself sitting in my chair at my desk.

"Damn it." I curse to myself, "It was just a dream."

The depressing realization overflows me.

"Figures."

I get up from my chair to face the door, but my eyes wander to a limp body lying stationary on the ground. I slowly move over to the body and roll it over to face me. It's...

"Monika" I whisper, half to myself, half to her.

She slowly opens her eyes to see me.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" Monika, screams in fear, her high pitched voice piercing my ears.

Startled I jump back and fall backward on the floor. Monika, Crawls back until she hits her back against the wall.

Scared, but authoritative, she speaks up, "Who are you? Where am I?"

I look at her, equally as confused.

"I… uh…" I struggle to find words in this situation.

"Did she really forget me?" I think to myself. "No, she's just never seen me before." I reassure, "She's only seen me through MC, or the protagonist, or whatever. I open my mouth to reveal myself but she beats me to it.

"Dean?" She says questioningly.

I smile at her, "Yeah, it's me."

The realization hit her face like a bullet, as we both get to our feet.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to freak out." She apologizes.

"It's fine, I'm just as freaked out as you are." I reply

The tension slowly dies down and we find ourselves getting closer to each other. Monika blushes and looks away shyly.

"So…" She awkwardly drags on.

Without a word, I latch my arms around her and pull her into a tight embrace. Just like the dream. She jumps at the sudden gesture but then wraps her arms around me in return. I can feel her. I can feel her warmth, her arms wrapping around me. Her chest pushing into mine. I run my hand through her long hair.

"I'm so glad you're here." I say, tears slowly forming in my eyes.

"I'm so glad to be here with you, my special rose." She replies.

Upon hearing this I hug her even tighter, clenching my eyes shut as tears overflow them. We stay like this for a few long minutes before we slowly pull back. I look into her eyes. Two shining emeralds drowning in tears of happiness. I move my face closer to hers as we close our eyes yet again. After a second I can feel her lips on mine. It feels as if everything around us is slowly disappearing as we're taken to a new world, where there's nothing but us. It's a truly magical feeling. We stay like this for what feels like an eternity before we, unfortunately, return to reality.

"So," Monika, speaks up, "should we talk?"

I stammer for an answer, "Uh, yeah… yeah, we should."

I attempt to blurt out the first question that comes to mind, but I'm overflowing with them.

"How are you here?" "Why are you here?" "What are we gonna do now?" "Can we just keep hugging?" I try to sort through the questions in my head as I look to the ground.

As I do I notice a pile of papers littered all over the floor.

"What are…?" I mutter as I reach down to pick up one of the papers.

I turn the paper over to see the words 'Birth Certificate' written in big fancy letters. I scan the not to see the name 'Monika Salvato' written on it. My confusion is interrupted as Monika holds up another paper to me.

"Dean?" she says to get my attention.

I glance at the paper to see a photo of, Monika, a couple Japanese characters, and the word 'passport' printed at the top.

"What the hell?" I whisper half to myself.

Monika, speaks up, "They're legal documents… for me?"

I pile up all the papers in my hands and look through them. I then noticed a smartphone lying on the ground and I pick that up too.

"Birth certificate, passport, social security card," I name out, "everything you'd ever need is here."

Monika, looks at me confused, "How?"

I look at her, "You don't know?"

Our thoughts are interrupted as we hear a knock on the door.

"Hey, Dean," the voice behind the door calls out, "I heard screaming, what's going on?"

Monika looks at me worried. I speak up, "Uh… It's nothing mom, I'm fine."

After a few seconds, we hear footsteps walking away.

"That was your mom?" Monika says, half whispering.

"Uh, yeah, unfortunately, I chose to save up for a car rather than an apartment." I reply, "I'm surprised she's even home."

My mom typically works late every day. That means I usually have the house to myself. Unless my sister decides to 'babysit'. My mom works really hard and brings home a lot of money, so I shouldn't really complain.

"I wanna meet her." Monika states, excited.

I look over at her, "No, you don't"

Monika frowns at me.

I continue, "You probably couldn't anyway, looking like that."

Monika looks down at herself then back at me. "You don't like how I look?" She says sadly.

I try to recover, "No. I, uh, just meant…"

Monika stares at me patiently, waiting for an answer.

"You just… look like an anime character." I manage to say.

Monika, smirks at me, "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, not for me at least." I smirk back and Monika blushes.

I continue my thought, "You look… really out of place here, with your super long hair and Japanese school uniform."

"If you want me to cut my hair you could've just asked." Monika, joking says.

I look at her squinting, "Well, we might have to. I don't know how it is in Japan but hair like that will really stick out in America."

She walks over to my mirror as I follow. We do seem to contrast a lot. I have straight, black, hair swept to the left, over my eyebrows. The classic emo hair, as most people would say. Unique for sure, but not even close to the same level as, Monika's giant ponytail. I look at my eyes in the mirror. They're brown with an almost red mix in them. I look over to, Monika's emerald green eyes. "My special emerald." I think to myself. I also notice Monika's almost perfect blemish-free face, with barely noticeable freckles dotting her face. In contrast to my, slightly blemished face with a small amount of stubble running from my chin to my sideburns, Monika looks like an angel. Finally, I look at our clothes. I'm wearing black skinny jeans with a black T-shirt. Both of which I got from Hot Topic. "Everyone's right, I really am emo." I think to myself. I look at, Monika's 'very obviously from an anime' outfit. She's gonna need new clothes.

"So, who's gonna cut it?" Monika says snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh yeah your hair, sorry." I think to myself for a second before walking over to my desk and pulling out a pair of scissors from my drawer.

Monika looks at me, slightly worried, "Um…"

"Don't worry" I reassure her, "I cut my hair all the time." I run my free hand over my own hair. "I'm pretty good at it."

Monika looks at my hair, "Well I can't argue with that," She says, winking. "It does look pretty hot."

I blush a bit as I try to hide my embarrassed smile. "Uh, yeah… so, how about it?"

She thinks to herself for a second, "Fine." She says, still slightly unsure. She walks over to my desk chair and sits down. "Just… don't take too much off."

"No problem." I say as I begin to undo her bow.

A few minutes pass and I'm done. Monika now has hair that goes just below her shoulders. "Alright, all done." I say as I hand her bow back to her. She puts her hair into a ponytail and ties her white bow over it. Her bow does make her stand out a bit but everyone needs something to make themselves unique. I wear a chain choker around my neck for the same reason. Plus, I couldn't part with the 'white bow of purity' as Reddit would call it.

Monika walks over to the mirror and inspects her hair. "I like it." she says, "I love it!"

She then turns around and brings me into a hug. She then quickly let's go. Much to my disappointment.

"Oh sorry! I'm covered in hair." She apologizes.

"Ah, that's fine." I say as I look at her now hair covered clothes. "Actually, this is a great time to talk about clothes."

"Oh yeah." Monika practically skips over to my closet and starts to look through my clothes.

I watch her sift through the endless amount of band tees.

"Sorry, I'm pretty emo." I say, feeling slightly mad at myself for being such an edgelord.

"If you want, we could go shopping so-"

"How about these?" She cuts me off and holds up a black Nirvana T-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans.

"Uh... yeah, that's fine" I reply.

I'm pretty surprised that she actually found something she liked. Regardless I should still take her shopping for her own stuff.

"Alright!" Monika perks up, "I'll try these on then."

She walks towards my door, but I stop her as she does.

"Hold on!" I say slightly louder than I meant to. Monika looks at me, concerned as I continue. "You can't leave just yet, my mom might see you."

Monika looks at me and yet again that smirk appears on her face. "Are you worried about me being seen, or are you just trying to get me to change in front of you?"

And again I find myself trying to hide a smile as I struggle to find a reply. "No… I-it's just… It would be really hard to explain and I-"

Monika starts laughing before she puts on a more seductive expression.

"You know, Dean, if you wanted to see me naked… all you had to do was ask." She says, referencing her past sentence.

I start to feel a blush consuming my cheeks.

Monika speaks up again, a slight blush appearing on her face as well. "I may have just shown up, but we've technically been dating for a month now. Behind a screen of course."

She then slowly starts to undress in front of me. I instinctively hold my breath as she does this, my blush only growing.

Monika pulls her vest over her head, then starts to unbutton her top. I watch her, speechless. Once all the buttons are undone she throws off her shirt to reveal a white bra covering her well above average breasts. She then pulls down her skirt to reveal a matching pair of white panties, just barely covering her most private parts. I stare at her motionless my blush only getting bigger every second.

"What's wrong, Dean?" She says in a teasing voice. "I thought you'd be used to seeing this, with all the 'special' fanart you saved of me."

I'm still left completely speechless, having to remind myself to breathe.

She then walks over to my bed and sits down on it. "W-would you like to do my stockings?" She blushes, slowly losing her advantage over me.

Now's my chance, stay calm, you've done 'things' with girls before. Why is this any different? I try to reassure myself. But something about, Monika, makes me lose my cool. She's different from other girls. Well of course she is, I mean she's video game character, but I meant that in a different way.

Regardless, I grab onto whatever courage I have let and walk over to her. I grab the stocking on her left leg and slowly start to pull it down. Making sure to make skin on skin contact with her legs. Her legs are so smooth as if they were just waxed only a few seconds ago. My hands slide down them effortlessly. As I pull the stocking off her foot she looks away, blushing madly.

I move over to her other leg, but this time, I slowly stroke my hands up her leg.

"Ah!" she yelps in surprise and looks at me with embarrassed eyes.

She looks more embarrassed than I did when she was undressing. I guess I'm in the lead. Just to clarify my victory, I run my hands a bit higher up than her stocking and stop right under her panties.

"Mmm," She pouts as I slowly move back down and take off her stocking. Monika now sits in front of me with only two pieces of cloth covering her.

"I-I got some of my hair on you too… so…" She says embarrassed.

I look at my shirt which has pieces of Monika's now cut hair littered on it.

"I guess I do," I say with a smirk.

Monika slowly gets up from the bed and gets close to me. As she does, I can feel my confidence slowly fading. She grabs the bottom of my shirt and looks up at me for permission. I look into her, wanting, emerald eyes as her chest rises and drops slowly, and deeply. All I can do is nod as my blush creeps back onto my face. She slowly pulls my shirt over my head and tosses it on the ground. I don't have the best looking body but I try to keep myself looking average. Regardless, Monika rests her hands on my chest. She then looks me in the eye.

"I can feel your heart beating." She says, her eyes fixated on me.

Slightly surprised, I keep quiet, by blush filling my face one again. Monika then lets go and takes a step back.

"Well, anyway… I should try on these clothes." She speaks up.

"Uh, yeah," I reply, still recovering from the event that just unfolded.

Monika then gets into the clothes that she picked out and turns to face me.

"How do I look?" she asks.

My eyes wander over her. The Nirvana tee was a bit long on her but it looked almost better that way. The jeans, on the other hand, fit her perfectly. They stuck to her legs like a second skin as they perfectly defined her features. All she was missing was a few tattoos and piercings and she'd look like one of those Disney princess reinterpretations. My special little emerald… looked emo.

"You look fucking amazing." I said, hypnotized by her dark beauty.

She smiled at me. "Aw! thanks, my special rose."

She then looked down at her jeans. "Are these women's jeans?" she asks.

"Uh..." I mutter out slightly embarrassed to admit that I own women's jeans.

Before I could answer my eyes notice the clock behind her. 1:23 AM.

"Oh shit," I say surprised. "It's already 1 in the morning? How long were we out?"

Monika looks over at the clock "Wait, don't you have school in the morning?"

I put my hand on the back of my head, defeated. "Ah, yeah. We need to figure out what to do about that."

Monika starts to undo her jeans "Well, we could talk about that in the morning. You're already up way too late."

"It's fine I usually go to sleep way later than this." I reply.

Monika looks at me, frustrated, "Well, that's bad. You should really get some better sleep. I don't want you struggling to stay awake all day."

I can't help but smile as she says that. "There's the Monika, I'm used to." I think to myself.

She pulls off her jeans, leaving her in her in her underwear and the T-shirt I gave her. She then walks over to my bed.

"Come on, take your jeans off, we're going to bed." She commands.

I blush after hearing this. "Uh, we do have an extra room if you want."

"Oh so now you don't care if your mom sees me." She says sarcastically as she pulls back the blanket and gets into my bed. She then looks back at me, "You're not gonna make me sleep in a guest room right?"

I didn't really want her to in the first place. I just wanted to make sure she was okay with this. I take off my jeans and crawl into bed with her. We're so close to each other. We stare into each other's eyes for a while before she speaks up.

"Goodnight, my special rose."

"Goodnight, my special emerald."

* * *

Well, that was really long. This is my first time writing something like 'that' so I hope you enjoyed. Hope you guys aren't too mad at me for cutting Monika's hair.

I'm probably gonna take a break from writing next week so hopefully this is enough for you guys. Make sure to follow this story to get updates.


	4. Chapter 4

I'm back for another chapter! I've really been enjoying reading the reviews for this story. I said this a couple times before but this is my first time sharing my writing. So please, leave a review. Give me feedback, tell me what you wanna see, or just tell me that you like what I'm doing. I'd really appreciate it.

Anyway, time for school!

* * *

It's Monika, standing right in front of me. We stare into each other's eyes, both shedding tears. I walk over to her and we share a tight embrace. We stay like this for a few minutes before we pull back to look into each other's eyes. We both simultaneously move closer, our lips desperate to meet. Slowly our eyes close and our lips are just an inch away.

I feel a tap on my shoulder. Startled, I turn around.

"What the hell are you doing?"

It's my friend, Devon. Well, I use the term friend loosely. I turn back around to see that Monika is gone.

"Were you playing that stupid game again?" Devon's sudden snap forces me to turn and face him again.

"Oh my God, what the fuck is wrong with you?" He continues, "You need to get a fucking life."

I scowl at him then turn around and start to walk away. "I don't wanna deal with his shit right now." I think to myself

Devon calls out to me, "Where are you going?" he shouts in an annoyed tone. I ignore him and continue to walk away. As I do, I can feel myself sinking deeper into the ground. Confused and desperate to save myself, I turn back and I stop sinking. I walk back to Devon, and he starts to walk away as I follow.

"That's what I thought," he says.

As we walk, Devon continues to insult me. I'm still engraved in the ground but I'm no longer sinking.

"You know," he starts to speak. "If you keep playing that weeb shit, you're gonna lose whatever friends you have left. Including me."

"You're lucky that I've put up with you for so long." He continues to ridicule me. "I even stayed with you during your super emo phase in freshman year. But I guess that phase is still going on, huh."

As I reluctantly walk with Devon, I can feel shackles appear on my left arm, with Devon holding the chain connected to them. I don't bother struggling against them. What other options do I have? I hate him, but it's better than being alone in this place.

"God, you used to actually be cool." Devon continues. "But then you started playing that shitty game, and talking about the fucking anime girl."

With that comment, I feel my sadness being wiped away. And in its place comes anger.

Again, Devon continues to talk. "News flash! No one fucking cares about how much you love your fucking waifu."

I get even angrier and I start to emerge from the ground and close the distance between us.

"God, I can't even remember her name." Devon stops and thinks to himself for a bit.

At this point, I'm right behind him. Anger overflowing me. Even though I can't see myself, somehow I know that my left eye is turning red.

"Oh yeah, I remember now." Devon turns to face me. "The bitch's name is Moni-"

Before he can finish saying her name I turn him around and wrap the chain of my shackle around his neck. I pull it against him as he struggles to get away. As I do this the black void around us lights up in a dark red hue. Before I know it, my hair falls and covers my right eye. Leaving only the red one visible. A scar draws itself over my wretched left eye.

I can feel Devon's body slowly going limp as he runs out of air. I've fully emerged from the ground, I no longer hear the distant whispers. I feel powerful.

"Dean." I hear Monika's voice from behind me.

I drop everything and turn. My eye and hair go back to normal and the now red void goes back to its default black.

"Dean" she calls out again, but I can't see her.

"Dean!"

I wake up in a sweat as I inhale sharply. I'm laying in bed, with Monika leaning over me.

"Oh thank God." She sighs in relief. "You had me worried for a second. Are you okay?"

I blink until my vision clears.

"Uh… yeah." I say, still slightly disoriented.

Monika frowns, not fully believing me. "Okay. Well, you have school in a few minutes. So you need to get ready."

I reluctantly get out of bed and walk over to my closet. I grab a pair of black jeans and a Linkin Park graphic tee. As I'm standing with my back turned to Monika, I can practically feel her gaze on me.

"What's that!" She shouts, worried.

"Oh shit. I forgot." I think to myself.

Monika walks up behind me and traces her fingers along the marks on my back. I jump slightly and she pulls back.

"Oh, Sorry" She apologizes then hesitates before speaking again. "A-Are those scars?" She asks.

"Yeah," I reply. I don't see them too often, but apparently, my lower back is covered in scars. I've heard people say that it looks like someone whipped me.

"What happened?" Monika says, genuine concern accompanying her words.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I say as I throw on my shirt and turn to Monika. "They've been there for as long as I can remember. And I don't know how they got there." I pull on my jeans.

Monika looks at me with sad eyes. Seeing that expression on her face just makes me want to hug her.

"Hey, don't worry about it." I attempt to calm her down. "They're probably just stretch marks or something."

It's a bad excuse, but it seems to put her at ease, at least a little.

She sighs. "Alright, well you should take a shower and go to school. Don't worry I'll hide from your mom." She smirks at her last comment.

I grab my phone and keys. I then grab a chain from a hook under one of my shelves. I fasten the chain around my neck and clasp the ends of it together. Making sure not to make it too tight but also having it hug my neck. Monika watches me as I do this.

"Ooh, that looks cool." Monika says.

"It's just a weird accessory that helps me feel a bit unique." I reply, "Kinda like your bow." I point to her hair.

Monika feels her bow before she speaks up again, "Well I like it. It really fits you."

I walk over to her and kiss her on the forehead. "I'll take that as a compliment." I say as I start to walk out.

"Just a kiss on the forehead?" Monika calls out.

I walk back over to her and passionately kiss her lips. We stay like this for a few seconds before I feel Monika try to push her tongue into my mouth. I oblige and open my mouth, letting her enter. As her tongue explores my mouth I move mine in to explore her's. We play around for a while until I hear a slight moan come from Monika and I pull away.

"If you're trying to make me late to school, I'm okay with that." I say, only half joking.

Monika chuckles, "No. I don't wanna get you in trouble." She replies. "Maybe when you get back." She smirks and a faint blush appears on her cheeks.

"Now go." She demands as she gives me a small shove towards the door.

One shower later and I walk into the living room to see my mom sorting through papers. She barely looks up at me. I walk into the kitchen and open the fridge for a snack.

"So why didn't you leave early today?" I passively ask her, not even taking my eyes out of the fridge.

"Who's the girl?" She asks, ignoring my question.

I close the fridge and face her with wide eyes.

"What?" I say nervously.

She replies, still looking through her papers. "The girl who was sleeping in your bed last night."

"Damn it." I curse to myself.

Monika must have unlocked the door last night when she tried going to the bathroom to change. Still, I'm surprised my mom even came in to check on me. We must have been making a lot of noise.

I walk over to her, "Her name is Monika. She just moved here from Japan."

She doesn't reply.

"The people who were supposed to look after her just abandoned her." I explain. "She doesn't have anywhere to go."

Still no reply. She doesn't even look up at me.

"We have the extra room," I try to convince her, although I'm not sure if she's even listening. "I'll even get a part-time job if you don't want to pay-"

"Hey Monika!" she cuts me off. "Come out here."

Monika appears out of the hallway and hesitantly enters the living room after I give her a nod of approval. Thankfully she put the jeans on from yesterday on before coming out.

She looks at my mom, "Hi Mrs…" Monika stops and thinks to herself for a second, embarrassed.

My mom looks at me for the first time today. Maybe even this week. "You're already sleeping with her and she doesn't even know our last name?"

She then looks at Monika. "It's Crimzen. Like the color. And it's Ms. actually.

Monika smiles at her. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Ms. Crimzen. I hope I didn't cause too much trouble last night."

"Not really. Just try to hold in your sceams next time." My mom says with a chuckle.

Monika and I look at each other, confused.

My mom then looks over to me. "I like her. She can stay. Just keep it down at night and you better be using condoms. I'm not having another baby in this house." And with that, she returns to her papers.

Monika looks at the ground, blushing madly.

"Uh... " Monika looks over as I begin speaking. "Let's head to school." I finish.

I grab her hand and open the door.

"Don't worry." I whisper to her, "She's barely around, so we would have to see her much."

Once the door closes behind us, Monika speaks up from behind me as we walk to my car. "Am I going with you?"

I turn to her, "It'd be a bit suspicious if I said you didn't go to school. It should be fine, believe me, the teachers won't care. Or probably even notice."

We approach a slightly beat up, red, 1999 Toyota. It's not the best car, but it works. And it was cheap. I unlock the doors and we both hop in. Monika immediately puts on her seatbelt which reminds me to put on mine. With my bag in the backseat, we head off to school.

I think over the past events that just occurred, and what's to come once we get to school. I stop at a red light as questions start to fill my mind. "Is anyone gonna recognize her?" "Can I really sneak her into school?" "How did all this even happen?" "How did all those legal documents just appear out of thin air." "What the hell are these dreams about." I lay my head on the steering wheel and sigh. Monika looks at me curiously.

"Fuck my life." I mutter to myself.

* * *

Well, there's another chapter done. Things are gonna start to get interesting from here on out. So I hope you guys are ready.

Make sure to leave a review of what you think. I love reading them.

See you next time.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey, it's been a while. Sorry, it took me so long to get this out. Some personal stuff got in the way and I wasn't really feeling motivated to write.

But anyway I'm back. So, let's get into this.

* * *

I drove into the school's parking lot and parked it in an empty space. Unbuckling my seatbelt and grabbing my bag, Monika and I, exited the car. Upon exiting, Monika shot me a worried glance and spoke up.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

I looked over at her and gave her the most genuine smile I could muster.

"I'm fine." I said.

Monika gave me a look that told me she obviously wasn't buying it. She glared at me, slightly considered, waiting for a real answer.

I gave in and responded, "Really, I'm fine. I'm just…" I struggled to find the right words. "I just… I'm not really the most popular person here."

Monika changed her expression from worry to slight confusion.

I brushed it off with a hand wave. "Nevermind. Don't worry about it. Let's just get in before someone noti-"

"Ms. Salvato!" I was interrupted by a voice calling out from behind me.

I turned around to see the principle walking over to us.

"Goddamnit," I silently curse to myself. "I'm never gonna be able to sneak her in- Wait what did he just say?"

I look over to, Monika, who looks just as confused as me. The principal approaches us and continues speaking.

"I've been waiting for you to arrive." He says with a grin on his face.

Monika, seems to have a look on her face that says, "Who? Me?"

The principle looks over to me. "I see you've already been acquainted with some of the students here." His tone seems to suggest that he's not too delighted that she's with me.

He clears his throat and continues. "Anyway, Ms. Salvato, I wanted to speak to you about your schedule. It seems that we've lost some of your records so I thought since you're just starting out today, It would be easier just to have you choose your schedule."

Monika, looks over to me, hoping for answers. I give her a small shrug and she turns to the principal once again.

"Um…" She starts to speak up, "I guess I'll just take the same classes as, Dean."

He looks at her with a disappointed face covered by a polite smile.

"Are you sure?" He asks, "Even his electives?"

Monika turns to me with a curious smile on her face.

"What electives do you take?" She asks me.

I respond, "Um, digital music and digital media"

Monika's expression turns to excitement.

"Ooh! That sounds fun!" She perks up and turns back to the principal. "Yeah. I'll take his classes."

He gives her a slight smile with a bit of worry laced in it and then nods. "Very well. You may be at a different level than him in a few academic classes, but we'll sort that out later. Report to my office once school starts and we'll get you your new schedule."

I chuckle at his comment towards me.

"Should I get someone to show you around the school?" he asks, Monika.

"No." Monika replies, "I'll just have, Dean, show me around."

The principle looks over to me, again with a slightly worried expression. "Right. If you don't mind me asking, what is your relationship together."

"We're living together." I say to him with a slight smirk.

He looks at me with a serious but slightly surprised look on his face. "Very well." He says while glaring at me. "Well, Ms. Salvato, don't hesitate to talk to me if you ever get into trouble." And with that, he walks away.

"Dick." I mutter to myself.

The last comment was clearly directed towards me. As if he thinks that, Monika will get into trouble just by being with me. The only thing I'm guilty of this year is mediocre grades. I haven't done anything since freshman year. I cringe at that thought.

"So…" Monika, says, pulling me out of my thoughts. "You wanna show me around?"

We walk around the school as I show Monika the classes she'll most likely be taking. After walking for a bit I finally decide to bring up what we're both probably thinking about.

"So, I guess you're enrolled in the school." I say, confused.

Monika looks at me and shrugs. "Don't look at me, I don't know how that happened."

"Yeah, I was worried you wouldn't" I respond. "With all those legal documents and now this? What the hell is happening?"

"Although I guess when a video game character randomly shows up in my reality weird stuff is bound to happen." I think to myself.

As, Monika and I, walk down the halls I start to notice people giving up weird glances. For a second I'm worried that they recognize her but then I hear a few whispers coming from the crowds of people.

"Who is she?"

"Is she with him."

"Wait, Dean, has a girlfriend?"

"I guess she doesn't really know him that well if they're dating."

I can feel my head start to spin as I listen to everyone whisper about us. It reminds me of the dreams I've been having. I start to fidget a bit as I try to ignore everyone.

"I think she's a new student."

"That would explain she's with him."

"He's probably just holding her hostage."

Suddenly, Monika grabs my hand. I snap out of it and look over at her. She smiles at me and squeezes my hand. A faint smile appears on my face as I start to relax.

Classes go by normally and mostly consisted of me trying to fall asleep. Once I got to digital music, Monika, was already there waiting for me. I, along with the help of the teacher, showed all the equipment and how to use it. The class was pretty well equipped for everything you would need to make professional sounding music. We even had a small recording booth in the back of the room. Of course, after showing, Monika, the microphones she asked me the inevitable question.

"Do you sing?" She asked, excited for my answer.

"No," I replied with a slight chuckle.

Monika looked at me with disappointed eyes.

"Well, I mean…" I stumbled over my words, trying to put, Monika's sad face at ease. "I-I guess I could but I've never really tried before."

"Then you have to sing with me!" Monika said, almost before I finished my sentence.

"There is no way-" I cut myself off after seeing, Monika revert to her sad face.

"Please." She said with a sincere voice.

"Fine," I said, giving in to her manipulative face. "I guess we could. Not today though."

Monika perked up with a wide smile on her face. "Great! I'll be looking forward to it."

I rolled my eyes playfully at her and continued showing her around.

There was only one more class till lunch. Once we were released I quickly looked around the school for Monika.

"Yo, Dean, what's up!" I heard a familiar voice call out from behind me.

I begrudgingly turned around to see, Devon, walking towards me.

"Hey, Devon," I said, giving him a slight wave. "

Devon catches up to me and we walk through the school for a bit.

"So, you getting lunch today or are you gonna starve yourself again?" He asked me. "I already ate during class so I'm good either way."

"Actually I was just looking for someone." I replied.

Devon chuckled, "Hopefully not a girl right?"

I ignored his comment and entered the cafeteria where I found, Monika, sitting at a table with her lunch.

"Hey, Dean!" She called out to me.

Devon looked at me, confused, and nearly froze at the door. I walked over to Monika and sat down with her. Devon, soon following and sitting across from us.

As we sat down, Monika, looked at, Devon, then to me.

"Oh, this is my friend, Devon," I said. I then turned to Devon, "And this is, Monika, my girlfriend."

Devon's eyes widened in surprise and slight disbelief. "Girlfriend. Really?" He looks at Monika, "How much is he paying you?"

Monika laughs, "What? Nothing."

"Oh, by the way," Monika hands me a slice of pizza that had been on her tray. "I noticed that you didn't eat anything this morning so here. I only wanted the salad anyway."

"Wait what do you mean this morning?" Devon asked. "Are you two living together?"

"Uh… yeah." I stuttered out. "She doesn't really have anywhere else to go, so…"

"Damn so you guys are pretty serious?" Devon asked.

"Of course!" Monika perked up, "We've actually been dating for a couple months but we just recently met in person."

"Huh," Devon seemed surprised. "So where are you from?"

Monika paused and started thinking to herself, confused on what to say.

"Japan," I said, saving her.

"Ha," Devon laughed, "I knew you were a weeb but geez." He looked at Monika, "You came all the way from Japan for him?"

"Yeah! Dean is very special to me." Monika said while smiling at me.

Devon smirked then stood up. "Well, I just remembered that a teacher wanted to see me after class so have fun you two." And with that, he walked off.

"Well, he seemed fun." Monika said.

"Yeah, he's definitely something," I respond. "I'm surprised he didn't recognize you or at least comment on your name. Actually, I'm surprised that no one's recognized you yet. I guess the hair really does make you look different."

We sat in silence for a second before Monika spoke up. "Why does everyone get surprised when we say that we're together?"

"Well, uh…" I try to find an excuse, "I guess you're just a lot prettier than I am."

Monika looks at me suspiciously. She can see right through me.

"It's nothing really…" I say. "I'll tell you about it later."

Lunch ends and we both head to class. Again classes go by normally until I get to my next elective, digital media. It's a class where we learn various things relating to computers. Such as Photoshop, 3D modeling, video editing, etc. Right now we're learning basic coding. I thought Monika would enjoy that and I guess I was right. She picked up on everything really quickly and was super invested in learning. I guess it makes sense that she'd like coding considering the events of DDLC.

After a couple more classes the day is over and I meet Monika at the front entrance. As we're talking we're approached by a girl who I was worried I would have to introduce to Monika.

"Hey, Dean." She greets me then looks over to Monika. "Oh, you must be, Monika, the new girl. I'm Melony."

Monika looks at her and smiles "Hello, nice to meet you."

Melony looks at both of us and notices we're holding hands. "Well, I guess the rumors are true, you really do have a girlfriend, Dean." She says jokingly.

I sigh, "Are there really already rumors about it."

"Don't worry they aren't anything bad." She pauses, "Most of them at least. But don't listen to 'em. I'm glad you finally found someone."

Monika looks at her suspiciously "So, how do you and Dean know each other?" She asks.

Melony opens her mouth as if to say something but then closes it and awkwardly looks at me.

"Um. We were friends back in freshman year" I say. "I-I mean, we still are. We just don't have a lot of classes together and… you know."

Melony looks back at Monika, "What he said. Anyway, my ride's here. See you guys later." She waves goodbye to us then disappears into the parking lot.

Monika looks at me with a serious expression. "So what's your real history with her? Is she an ex-girlfriend?"

"Oh, no definitely not." I laugh out.

Monika looks at me, confused.

"It's not really anything," I reassure her. "We have more important things to talk about anyway. Let's just head home."

We walk towards my car, hop in, and drive off.

* * *

Alright, there's another chapter done. This one took me a bit cause I've been a bit but I think it came out pretty good. Of course, I'd still love to hear what you guys think.

I should have time to write more this week so new chapters should be coming out more.

Hope you guys enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

I really appreciate all the support that this story's been getting. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have been writing this often if you guys didn't like it so much.

I got a couple reviews about my punctuation and use of commas. I know, I don't really know how punctuation works. Sorry, I must have been asleep when they taught that in class. I'll try to learn myself.

By the way, Shadow, for some reason your review isn't showing up on the site but I was able to see it through my email. Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you like it so far.

Anyway, let's get into this chapter.

* * *

I parked my car in the driveway to our house and we both walk through the door. As usual, there's no one home.

"Where's your mom?" Monika asks.

"She works late most days," I say while dropping my bag on the ground. "and she'll sometimes stay at her co-worker's house if she doesn't feel like driving home."

Monika looks at me with sad eyes. "Don't you get lonely?"

That question made me think. "Am I lonely?" I thought to myself. I typically spend my time playing games or sleeping, so I don't really mind being alone. In fact, I kinda hate it when my mom or sister come into my room. But I guess that could be because I don't really like them that much. I never thought that I was lonely, but ever since Monika showed up I've been a lot happier.

I smile at Monika. "Well, I have you now."

She smiles back at me. "Aw, Dean!"

I roll my eyes at her and we both walk to my room.

Upon entering my room I notice that Monika has put all of her legal documents in a neat stack on my desk. Seeing them reminds me of what I wanted to ask her.

"Hey, Monika," I say in a curious voice.

She looks at me awaiting my question.

I simply look at her, not fully knowing what I want to ask.

I manage to form a sentence in my head. "How the hell is this happening?"

She looks at me, confused. "What do you mean?

"I mean…" I look at her, head to toe. "How are you here?"

Monika stays silent, most likely unsure of how to answer.

I continue, "How can you just show up, passed out, in my room with all these legal documents and a phone?" A small realization hits me "Have you looked through the phone?"

Monika pulls the item in question out of her pocket. "Yeah, there's nothing on it. Like it's been factory reset."

I think to myself for a second as Monika watches me. "Do you remember anything from before you came here?"

This time, Monika thinks to herself while I watch. "Well, I'd been messing around with the code of the game for a while, trying to find a way out. Then one day, I was just able to edit text in the note you sent me."

Monika sits down on my bed as she continues her explanation.

"It's weird. Whenever you would turn off the game I'd be sent to this empty void. I'd just be floating around, endlessly. All I could hear were these distant screams. And my head would fill with all of these thoughts as to what was happening. Then it would all just stop. My mind would go blank and all my senses would stop working. It felt like I was dying, or disappearing from existence."

Monika's words hit me hard. She'd told me this before but I never took it seriously. If I'd knew she was real then I would've kept my computer on 24/7. I feel horrible.

"But then" Monika continues, "this one time, there were no screams. Instead, there were just whispers. I couldn't make out what they were saying but it sounded ominous and creepy. Also, I was able to look through the game files. That's when I found your note. It took awhile but eventually, I figured out how to respond. I thought that I'd done it. I thought that I had finally done something that would let me talk to you. But the more I think about it, the more I think that it wasn't me at all. Regardless, talking to you for real was amazing. That void was terrifying but you were like a light in all that darkness. I needed you. I love you, my special rose."

I sat down on the bed next to Monika and hugged her.

"Well, I'm here now, my little emerald." I reassured her, "You don't need to worry about that ever happening again."

Monika hugged me back, tightly. We stayed like this for a few minutes before she pulled away.

"I don't remember anything that happened after that." She explained, "One minute I was talking to you, the next I was screaming in your face as you tried to wake me up."

We both laughed at that last part.

"Now that I think about it," I spoke up, "I can't remember anything either. The last thing I remember was talking to her through the text file and then that weird line of text showed up. I can't remember what it said."

As I try to envision it in my mind I feel a sharp pain in my head.

"Wait a second." A realization hit me. "We could just look at the flash drive."

I walk over to my computer with Monika following behind. I sit in my desk chair, wake my computer, and plug in the flash drive. The window pops up with three items on it. A folder titled 'After Story Files', An exe shortcut named 'Monika After Story' and a text file labeled 'Dear Monika'. I double clicked the text file. A popup appeared along with a ding from my computer.

"This file has been corrupted and cannot be opened."

"Of course," I said out loud.

"What about my character file?" Monika asked.

I opened up the folder that held the files to the Monika After Story mod. I opened the folder titled 'characters'. The only file that remained was ' '. Upon clicking the file I'm met with the same message.

"This file has been corrupted and cannot be opened."

I go through the rest of the game files and try opening anything I can. With each file I click, I'm greeted by the same message.

"Everything on the flash drive is corrupted," I say.

Monika laughs "Well good thing I was the only thing on there."

"Good thing you're not any more" I laugh back. "I can't even open the game anymore. And I never got to beat you in chess."

"You probably wouldn't have anyway," Monika says with a smirk.

I turn my chair to face her. "Well to be fair I barely know how to play it. Maybe if we did something I'm better at…"

"Okay. Let's do something you're good at." Monika walks over to my TV and inspects the various amounts of games and consoles I have. "You have all these games here… What are you good at?"

I walk over to her and look at my stack of games. I mostly own single player games but I do have a Wii with a few multiplayer ones. I pick up one of the games.

"You ever heard of Super Smash Bros. Melee?" I ask.

Monika gets a confused expression on her face and thinks to herself for a few seconds. "I feel like I have but for some reason, I can't remember it."

I'm confused as to what she meant but I brush it off. "Well, it's a fighting game. I'm not too great at it, but if you've never played it before then I guess we'd kinda be even."

Monika gives me a smile, "Okay. Let's play that."

I turn on the console and set up the game. Once we get to the character selection screen Monika almost immediately chooses Link.

"That's weird," I say.

Monika looks at me curiously. "What is?"

"Well, Link is a pretty good character. Usually, new players gravitate towards Kirby." I explain.

Monika looks back at the screen. "I don't know. He just looked cool I guess."

I slide my cursor over Roy and select him. I choose the default Battlefield map so that Monika could get used to the game. After a few seconds the game loads.

I start to explain the controls to Monika. "Okay, so 'A' is the-"

Before I could finish my sentence, Monika immediately charges me and starts attacking. I quickly try to recover but she dodges almost all my attacks. Within seconds, I'm thrown off the map.

I look at Monika with a mixture of confusion and amazement. "So, were you lying when you said you've never heard of this game? Or are you just that amazing at everything?"

Monika looks almost as confused as me. "I have no idea how I did that." She explains "I've never even played this before."

"Right," I say sarcastically.

We continue playing and Monika completely destroys me. I'm not able to take a single life from her but she takes all mine in a matter of minutes. She plays like she's practicing for an Esports tournament.

"I swear I've never played this before." She says, laughing.

I don't want to believe her, for my own pride, but I think she's telling the truth. Suddenly an idea pops into my head.

"Hold on," I say while walking to my computer. I open my browser and type 'Dan Salvato Super Smash Bros' into the search bar. I click the first link that appears which is the Super Smash Bros. Wiki. Dan Salvato has his own wiki page.

I read the first few lines out loud. "Dan Salvato, previously known as Internet Explorer, is a former professional smasher from New Jersey. He was known as one of the best Melee Link players in the United States, and was also considered one of the best Project M Link players in the world."

I look back at Monika who's holding back a laugh.

"I guess you had an unfair advantage," I say with a chuckle.

"How about we play something else." Monika laughs out.

We continue to compete against each other in Wii sport and then Guitar Hero. Monika wins at the former but I win at the latter. After we're done competing we start to play through some of the songs in Guitar Hero together with me on guitar and Monika singing. Eventually, Monika convinces me to sing a couple of songs.

"You're really good at singing!" Monika says, excited to hear me. "Has anyone ever heard you before?"

"No." I reply "And I'm not that good, I just know the songs really well."

"How could you be in a class like digital music with all of that equipment and never sing?" Monika asks.

"No one really uses it" I reply "The school only has it so they can brag about how good there electives are."

Monika frowns at me. "Well they're still there, aren't they? Maybe if we use them we'll inspire other people too."

"Yeah yeah," I roll my eyes at her. "I already agreed to sing with you. We'll get around to it eventually."

I look at the time on my phone to see that it's 9:46 PM.

"We should head to sleep soon." I say.

"Okay. I'm gonna take a shower first." Monika says while walking out of the room.

I start to put away all the games until I hear Monika call me from the bathroom. "Hey, Dean, how does this thing work?"

"I'll be right over." I say back. Showing her would be easier.

I walk over to the bathroom and open the door. Once I do, I'm greeted by the sight of a fully nude Monika facing away from me. My heart skips a beat and I suddenly forget how to breathe. Monika turns around after hearing the door close and I quickly slam my eyes shut.

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't-" I struggle to make words right.

"Dean." I hear Monika say quietly.

I keep my eyes closed and wait for her response. Which if I know anime characters is probably going to be a punch that sends me to the moon. However, instead what happens is I'm pushed against the closed door and Monika squeezes her body against mine. Basically hugging me while pinning me against the wall. I open my eyes.

"Um! What?! What are you doing?!" I yell in a mix of confusion and panic.

Monika starts laughing hysterically. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Still squished against me, Monika looks up at me with loving eyes. "Dean we may have just met in person but we've been together for months. You don't have to be embarrassed around me."

She then starts to blush and slowly back away. "I'm fine with you seeing me naked." She says in a slightly shy voice.

Eventually, Monika backs up to the point where I can see her, fully. She has the perfect body. Thin hips, large c cup breasts, thick thighs. Her skin was pale and near flawless, only a couple light freckles dotting her spotless body. I wanted to touch her.

I hesitantly stepped forward and brought my right hand up to her hip. I slowly started to slide my hand up her body until I was just below her breast. I looked at her for approval. She was anxiously looking down at my hand while biting her lip, a blush covering her entire face. Without looking directly at me she gave me a small nod, telling me to continue. I slowly moved my hand up to her breast and took it into my hand. I used my thumb to trace over her stiff, pink nipple.

I suddenly felt Monika's hand find their way to my belt as she started to undo it. My jeans dropped to the floor and I moved my feet out of them then slid them to the side. Next, Monika grabbed the bottom of my shirt and began to pull it over my head. Immediately she placed her hands on my chest.

"Your heart is beating fast." She stated. She then looked up at me with shy eyes. "Do you… wanna feel mine?"

I nodded. She grabbed my left hand and directed it to her heart. The slight thumps of her chest felt almost therapeutic in my hand. We both stood there feeling each other's hearts for what felt like an eternity. Soon, we both looked each other in the eyes and moved in for a passionate kiss. I moved my tongue into Monika's mouth and tangled it with hers. The kiss slowly turned more and more passionate until I ended up pinning her against the wall.

I fondled her breast with my right hand as I held her arm above her head with my left. With each squeeze of my right hand, I would feel Monika moan in my mouth. She eventually dragged my last article of clothing down my legs. She pulled away from the kiss to look down at what she'd just unveiled. During this, I moved my focus to her neck as I kissed and nibbled her skin.

Using her free arm, Monika wrapped her hands around my member and began to stroke it. Returning the favor, I released her arm from my grasp and started to stroke the wet slit between her legs. Monika moaned while holding my head in place on her neck. I then snuck a finger into her womanhood and slowly started to pump it in and out of her.

"Ah!" She moaned loudly at the unexpected gesture.

My finger started to explore inside of her, looking for her weak point.

"A-ah! Oh! Right there!" She moaned, verbally guiding my hand.

The faster I pumped inside her the faster she would stroke my own sex. An intimate and fair exchange.

"D-Dean! I think I'm about to…" She trailed off, absorbed in the pleasure.

Understanding her warning I slid a second finger inside of her.

"Ah! Oh God!" She screamed in pleasure.

Upon doing this, she started to stroke me even faster. I started to feel myself reach my own limit.

"Dean!"

"Monika!"

We both called each other's names one last time before our mouths were covered with the others. As we both reached our climaxes our kiss became more sloppy and aggressive. The pure ecstasy made our mouths vibrate against each other as we tried to moan. Soon my hand becomes soaked with Monika's fluids and mine were squirted onto Monika's stomach. We released ourselves from the kiss and leaned our foreheads against each other as breathed hot, exhausted breaths onto the other.

After a few seconds, I spoke up.

"I think I'm gonna need a shower too." I laughed out.

"Well, you still have to show me how it works." Monika laughed back.

After a small moment of laughter, Monika looked at me with passionate eyes.

"I love you, my special rose." She said lovingly.

I smiled at her. "I love you too, my little emerald."

* * *

Well… that happened. It was my first time writing something like that so I hope it wasn't too cringy.

I also hope you guys enjoyed reading. Until next time.


	7. Chapter 7

Alright, time to write again. Sorry if this chapter is a bit late. I just wasn't feeling up to it lately and I didn't wanna force myself to write. Believe me, whenever I force myself to write it's noticeable and bad.

But I haven't updated in a week so here's something really short just to show I'm still here.

* * *

" _Dean?!" I hear Monika call out to me again._

 _Slowly Monika starts to become visible in the distance. The look on her face tells me she's confused and frightened. She's hesitant to approach me._

" _W-what were you just doing?" She asks through a shaky voice._

 _I don't know how to respond._

" _Was I about to kill him?" I think to myself. "I didn't want to kill him, but… wrapping that chain around his neck just felt so..."_

" _Careful Monika he's dangerous." My thoughts are interrupted by another voice._

 _I look up to see Melony walking up to Monika._

" _What do you mean?" Monika asks her._

" _You saw what he was doing. He was about to murder poor Devon." Melony looks at me with menacing eyes. "He's a fucking psycho. Only a matter of time before he does something to you."_

 _Monika looks at her confused. "To me?"_

" _Oh yeah." Melony says with a chuckle. "He's especially viscous around girls. Aren't you Dean?"_

' _I'm not like that anymore' I think to myself. I try to speak but no words come out._

" _Dean?" Monika looks at my through teary eyes. "What's going on?"_

" _Yeah Dean." Melony walks towards me. "Why don't you tell her about everything you did to me."_

 _I feel like I can't speak. All I can do is think. 'She's making sound much worse than it actually is. Right? I mean… I hadn't even done anything to her yet.'_

" _Dean what's going on?" Monika shouts at me. "What happened with you?"_

 _I want to reassure her but I just can't. I feel myself sinking into the floor._

 _Melony walks up next to me. "What's wrong? Too scared to tell her? Or are you planning to do the same to her?"_

" _Just tell me Dean." Tears start to pour down Monika's face. "Don't you trust me? Don't you love me?"_

 _The more I look at Monika's sad face, the more I sink. I look away from her, ashamed. I want to tell her I love her._

" _I don't even know you do I?" Monika turns and runs away, tears streaming from her eyes._

" _Don't worry." Melony says as we both watch her leave. "Rejection never really stopped you anyway."_

 _With a laugh, Melony disappeared and I'm left alone. I hear the distant whispers come back as I start to sink deeper into the ground. I don't try to resist. Soon I sink down to my chest. My arms are trapped and I'm unable to move them. I don't care. I deserve whatever happens to me._

 _Soon my head goes under and I can no longer breathe. 'This is how I'm gonna die. Alone. I guess that makes sense.' I start to lose conscious._

' _I deserve to be alone.'_

My eyes dart open as inhale sharply. Instinctively, I try to sit up but as I do I'm restricted by something holding me down. I look at my chest to see a pair of arms latching onto it. I follow them back to see Monika peacefully sleeping while clinging to me. I start to relax once I see her.

I lay back down and Monika adjusts herself in her sleep to get closer to me. Her head now rests on top of my chest. I put my arm around her and hold her close. Lying like this is almost therapeutic. I feel myself calming down as I look at Monika's peaceful, resting face.

While holding her like this, I realize how lucky I am to have her. I mean she came out of a video game just to be with me. I still don't know how that's even possible but right now, I don't care. All that matters is that she's with me and I'm never gonna let her go.

"I love you." I whisper to her as hold her closer.

"I love you too." She responds, slowly opening her eyes.

I jump slightly, not expecting a response.

"Wait your awake?" I say slightly embarrassed.

Monika chuckles. "Yeah I woke up when you jerked up so suddenly."

"Oh, sorry about that." I apologise.

We sit in silence for a while before Monika decides to speak up.

"So did you have a nightmare?" She asks.

"N-no I just-" I cut myself off.

Without even looking at her, I can sense that Monika isn't falling for whatever I'm about to say.

I sigh, "Yeah. I did. Don't worry about it though. It was nothing"

"You sure?" Monika questions. "Your heart was beating pretty fast when you woke up."

"What is it with you and heart beats." I ask with a chuckle.

"Well it's what keeps you alive right?" Monika speaks in a serious but loving voice. "It's the center of you. Your core. And to feel it you have to be really close to someone. Assuming you don't let strangers that close to your chest."

I chuckle again. "Well I guess if you word it right you could make anything sound romantic. Even a fleshy organ that shoots blood out of itself."

Monika exhales a laugh. "Well… It's also the fact that I can even feel it at all." She rearages herself so that she can place a hand on my chest. "When I was stuck inside that computer I wasn't able to feel you like this. I was barely able to talk to you." She then lifts herself off the bed and hovers her face over mine. "But now I can be as close to you as I possibly can. And what we did last night seemed like something I could only dream of." She plants a kiss on my lips then pulls away to look into my eyes.

"I was trapped in a cage my whole life. The only comfort I found was in you. And there was a screen separating me from you. But now I'm here with you. I don't know how or why but I don't care. All I want is to be close to you."

I smile at her and lift myself up to kiss her again.

"I love you my little emerald."

"I love you too my special rose."

We stay silent for a while until Monika starts to drift off to sleep again. I slowly reach for her phone nearby, trying not to wake her. I turn on her phone to check the time. Once the device turns on I'm suddenly blinded by the bright light. Soon my eyes adjust and I see that Monika's lockscreen is a picture of me in class.

"She must have taken this while I wasn't looking." I think to myself, chuckling.

I look at the time to see that it's 4:00 AM. I decide to go back to sleep sense we still have a few hours till school. I gently wrap my arms around Monika as I slowly lose consciousness.

* * *

And there it is.

I know it was really short but I just haven't been feeling motivated enough to write and I've been SO busy with school.

I promise I'll write something longer soon. But I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm still alive.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey… I'm back. Anyone still remember this story?

I know it's been a long time since I've updated and I'm so sorry. I'm gonna be honest because I think I at least owe you guys that. I've been going through a lot of shit these past few weeks. Depression, writer's block, loads of school work, and a whole bunch of other complicated mental shit. I won't go into detail but I just couldn't find the inspiration/ time to write.

I've had a rough fucking month but I think it's starting to look up. Hopefully...

Anyway here's the long awaited chapter 7. Hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

I rolled over in my bad as my eyes opened. I blinked away my blurry vision and propped myself up on my elbow. Once my vision was cleared I looked to the other side of the bed expecting to be greeted by a sleeping Monika. However, all that lay in her space was the other half of the bed.

"She must have gotten up before me." I thought to myself. "Not that that's new or anything."

I reluctantly got out of bed and made my way down the hallway exiting my room. Once I entered the living room I could hear a sizzling sound coming from the kitchen. I looked over to see Monika standing by the stove. She turned to face me and gave me a wide smile.

"Oh! You're up." She said excitedly. "I made eggs and toast. I would've made bacon but you didn't have any."

I was completely speechless. I entered the kitchen and was hit with the aroma of a well-cooked meal. I looked into the pan on the stove to see scrambled eggs sizzling to the heat.

Monika looked at me with a mixture of confusion and worry. "Um… I hope you don't mind. I guess I probably should've asked you before taking food from your house."

I turned to Monika still remaining completely silent. I didn't know what to say.

Monika only seemed more confused. "D-Do you not like it?"

I stood there staring into her eyes waiting for my brain to form a sentence. Realizing that I was lost for words, I pulled Monika into a tight embrace.

She was slightly startled by the sudden action but quickly returned the hug.

"Dean are you okay?" She said as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I-I've never-" I stumbled over my words, my mouth unwilling to admit it. "I've never had anyone cook for me before."

I could feel tears filling my eyes but I quickly fought them off.

Monika simply held me closer, tightening her grip around me.

"Dean... " She said sadly.

I slowly pulled away from the embrace and pressed my lips against hers. We stayed like this for a while as I continued to fight off any tears that crept into my eyes. After a few moments, we pulled away.

"Thank you, Monika," I said sincerely.

She smiled at me. "It's no problem. I love you. I'll cook for you whenever you want."

Monika brought me into another embrace. "You're not alone anymore Dean."

We pulled away stared into each other's eyes lovingly.

"Alright!" Monika perked up. "I'm almost done here. Go get dressed and then we can dig in."

I smiled at her one more time then went to leave the room. As I walked away I looked back at her.

"Monika," I said in a serious tone, "I love you."

She smiled back at me. "I love you too my special rose."

I walked back into my room and threw on an MCR t-shirt along with dark blue jeans. I put my chain choker around my neck and adjusted it so that it was comfortable. I then re-entered the Kitchen where Monika had set two plates for her and myself. I sat down and we began eating.

"Hey, Dean," Monika spoke up. "What did you mean by you've never had anyone cook for you?"

"Well, I guess I kinda have before." I clarified. "I mean I'm sure my mom has made me sandwiches before when I was a kid but I don't really remember much from back then. Most of my life has just been fast food, pizza, and sometimes just small snakes from the gas station. My mom's barely around and I don't really know how to cook so…"

Monika smiled at me. "Well, not anymore. I've decided to make you breakfast and dinner every day. And lunch if we don't have school."

I give her a small chuckle. "Thanks but that's not really necessary. I mean thank you so much for this but you don't have to cook for me every day. I've never really had a big appetite anyway."

"Well, then why don't we go out to eat sometime?" Monika asks. "And I mean at an actual restaurant. Not fast food."

I think to myself for a second then look over to Monika. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

Monika blushes after hearing this. "W-well I mean… If you'd like to call it that."

I smile at her awkwardness. "Sure. We should go out on a date. I mean ever since I played the Our Time mod that's all I really wanted to do."

"Oh God that mod," Monika said jokingly. "Actually that reminds me. You should take me shopping for clothes. N-not that I don't like your clothes or anything."

"You know what, we should," I say. "My sister and I share a bank account and I've put a few hundred bucks on it from past jobs."

"Are you sure that's okay?" Monika asked. "I mean I don't wanna waste your money or anything."

I give her a small smirk. "Well, it won't be a waste if I get to pick out some of your clothes."

Monika blushes then smirks back at me. "What did you have in mind?"

I blush back as I make my suggestion. "Well, there's this sweater that I think might-"

"You want me to wear a virgin killer sweater?" Monika asked in a serious tone.

"I mean… Yes." I respond.

"Well, I won't tell you how to spend your money." She says, flirtatiously. "And it would be horrible of me to not wear something my boyfriend bought me." Her blush grew wider.

"It's a date then," I say in an equally flitty tone.

Once we finished breakfast we got into my car and made our way to school. Due to traffic we only arrived just on time and had to head to class immediately.

I painstakingly sat through my classes, excited for my date with Monika. I wondered what kind of clothes she would pick out. The only thing I've seen her in since she came here was my band tees and skinny jeans. I knew skirts were more of her style so I wanted to get her one. While I was lost in thought my name was called by the teacher.

"Dean?" She said questioningly

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked towards the front of the room.

"Huh?" I said, wondering why she called me.

All that was followed were a couple chuckles from my classmates.

The teacher looked at me unimpressed. "Well, clearly I've been boring you so why don't I just hand out the worksheets now."

A few reluctant groans came from some of the students. I caught a few angry glances towards me which made me sink in my seat.

"I wish Monika was here," I thought to myself. If she was she'd probably give me a bittersweet smile or say something like "You should pay more attention. Education is important." Monika probably has amazing grades. She was apparently some sort of school idol back in DDLC so it would make sense. I never really got good grades in school. I was more of a straight C student with the occasional D. I do have an A in both my elective classes but they basically hand those out there. It's not that I'm incapable of getting better grades, I'm just not willing. However, I might as well start trying now instead of later when Monika sees my report card.

I get a decent amount of work done in the rest of my classes now that I've decided to actually pay attention. My classes seem to pass by fast now that I'm keeping busy and digital music comes before I know it. Once digital music starts I head into the class where Monika is patiently waiting. After she sees me enter she perks up and runs over to me practically while I'm still in the doorway.

"Have you decided on a song?" she says.

"What do you mean?" I say confused.

Monika looks at me disappointed. "The song that you promised you'd sing."

"Oh yeah, that." I say reluctantly. "I haven't decided on one yet. Give me a minute to find one."

"Okay. I'll set everything up in the meantime." She says excitedly.

I spend a few minutes looking through songs on my phone. I wanted to pick something that I knew really well but also something with a strong message since the whole class would also be listening. After looking for a few minutes I found exactly what I was looking for.

"Hey, Monika I think I found it," I called out.

Monika practically skipped over toward me. "What is it?"

"Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park," I answered.

Monika looked interested. "I don't think I've heard that before."

"You should be able to decode the lyrics," I said.

"So why'd you pick this one?" She asked

'Well, Linkin Park has always been my favorite band. I've been listening to them since I was a kid. Actually, I think this is the first song I've heard from them. Anyway, recently the lead singer, Chester Bennington, died. He had depression and some problems with drugs. And… he committed suicide."

"Oh, That's awful. I'm so sorry." Monika said sincerely.

"Yeah, I always kinda looked up to the guy." I continued. "He always put so much emotion into his songs. He was a great artist. Anyway, this is my favorite song by him. It really speaks to me. Sorry I know that sounds stupid."

"Not at all," Monika replied. "Songs are a lot like poetry. They use clever word forming to convey a thought or emotion. The whole point of it is to speak to you. And the best music is the kind that makes you feel something.

"Was that your writing tip of the day?" I chuckle.

"Well, that wasn't really about writing." She chuckles back. "Anyway, I'd love to hear you sing it."

I walk into the small recording booth and approach the microphone that was placed inside. I put on the pair of headphones that were hanging on the microphone stand.

"Alright, I'll find an instrumental version of the song for you to sing to." She says.

Monika sits outside of the booth on a computer while I wait. Once everything is all set Monika puts on her own pair of headphones.

"Alright, everything's all set." She says. "Tell me when you're ready."

I take a deep breath. "Alright, I'm ready."

The music begins to play. I wait for the opening instrumentals to finish and then I sing.

" _Memories consume like opening the wound_

 _I'm picking me apart again_

 _You all assume_

 _I'm safe here in my room_

 _Unless I try to start again_

 _I don't want to be the one the battles always choose_

 _'Cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused"_

At first, I'm nervous and unsure if my singing is any good. However, I feel better knowing that Monika is the only one that can hear me. Once I get to the chorus I start to get more confident.

" _I don't know what's worth fighting for_

 _Or why I have to scream_

 _I don't know why I instigate_

 _And say what I don't mean_

 _I don't know how I got this way_

 _I know it's not alright_

 _So I'm breaking the habit_

 _I'm breaking the habit tonight"_

By the second verse, I'm practically singing the song naturally.

" _Clutching my cure_

 _I tightly lock the door_

 _I try to catch my breath again_

 _I hurt much more than any time before_

 _I have no options left again_

 _I don't want to be the one the battles always choose_

 _'Cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused"_

" _I don't know what's worth fighting for_

 _Or why I have to scream_

 _I don't know why I instigate_

 _And say what I don't mean_

 _I don't know how I got this way_

 _I'll never be alright_

 _So I'm breaking the habit_

 _I'm breaking the habit tonight"_

As I finish the second chorus I prepare myself for the next part of the song which is supposed to be screamed.

 _I'll paint it on the walls_

 _'Cause I'm the one at fault_

 _I'll never fight again_

 _And this is how it ends_

It almost feels like the song has taken me over and singing it is almost as natural as speaking. I gather all of the emotions inside of me and release them with each word.

 _I don't know what's worth fighting for_

 _Or why I have to scream_

 _But now I have some clarity to show you what I mean_

 _I don't know how I got this way_

 _I'll never be alright_

 _So I'm breaking the habit_

 _I'm breaking the habit_

 _I'm breaking the habit tonight_

I arrive at the final stretch of the song and I put all of my energy into finishing strong.

 _I don't know what's worth fighting for_

 _Or why I have to scream_

 _I don't know why I instigate_

 _And say what I don't mean_

 _I don't know how I got this way_

 _I'll never be alright_

 _So I'm breaking the habit_

 _I'm breaking the habit tonight_

 _I'm breaking the habit (tonight)_

As the music fades I can feel myself coming back to reality. I look at Monika who looks absolutely dumbfounded. I walk out of the recording booth and I'm immediately greeted by applause from the class. Confused, I look at Monika who claps along with a guilty smile. After a few seconds, the applause fades and the class returns to their work.

I look at Monika confused. "How were they able to hear me?"

Monika blushed embarrassingly. "Well, I may have played your audio out loud for the class."

I tried looking at her angrily but I couldn't help a small smile from appearing on my face.

"You did amazing though," Monika said trying to save herself. "Really that was… emotional."

"Thanks," I said, my anger subsiding.

"Those parts where you screamed…" Monika continued. "This song really does mean a lot to you huh."

"Yeah. It does." I say. "So did you figure out what it's about?"

Monika thinks to herself for a second. "Based off of what you said about the singer I'd guess it's about drug use. Specifically trying to quit. Hence the name 'Breaking the Habit'."

"Correct. You're very observant." I said.

"But…" Monika continues. "I don't know how this song relates to you. You haven't had any problems with drugs have you?"

"No." I chuckle. "I like to think art is up to interpretation and music is my favorite form of art. The way I interpret the song is that it's about someone who has done things in the past that they're not proud of. It's about someone who's trying to become a better person."

Monika looked at me intrigued. "That's very intellectual of you. So how does that meaning relate to you?"

As I reluctantly open my mouth to explain the bell rings.

"I'll… tell you later. I promise." I say as I exit the class."

I sit through my last class before lunch actually listening to the teacher for once. Once the class ends I exit and I'm immediately approached by Devon who was walking through the halls.

"Yo Dean what's up." He calls out.

"Hey, Devon." I greet back.

He walks past me and I follow.

"Hey so I was thinking of heading to the gas station and getting some drinks," he says. "You wanna come with?"

I look at him confused. "You mean right now?"

"Yeah" He clarifies. "You coming or what?

At this point, I notice that we were heading to a door outside the school. I stop in my tracks as Devon opens the door and looks back at me.

"You know we can't leave during lunch, right." I say.

He laughs in response. "Damn your girlfriend must be too good of an influence on you. It's right across the street. No one's gonna notice or care."

I could really use an energy drink right now. And all the vending machines here only have water and orange juice.

"Ehh… Sure why not." I say reluctantly.

We both head outside and make our way to the edge of the school. As we're walking Monika calls out to us and jogs over.

"Hey, I thought I saw you two leave." She says. "Are we eating outside today?"

I try to make up an excuse. "Uh… no, we were just-"

"We were gonna head over to the store and get some drinks." Devon says.

Monika looks confused. "But, isn't that off campus?"

Devon laughs again. "Why does everyone say that? It's literally right across the street. People do it all the time."

"Well actually Dean has to help me with something in one of my classes so you're gonna have to go without him." Monika says, glaring daggers into me.

I decided to play along, terrified of Monika's gaze. "Oh yeah. I totally forgot. Sorry, Devon Maybe next time."

I feel one of Monika's daggers stab into my side.

"I mean… not next time- I mean… see ya." I stumble out as Monika metaphorically drags me away.

Once we're back inside Monika looks at me angrily.

"What were you thinking?" She asks.

"What?" I reply. "He's right people do it a lot. And you can't tell me you've never left school before."

Monika shakes her head and sighs. "Well, I have many times. But that was a video game. I don't even think teachers existed there. Technically The school didn't even exist beyond two classrooms and a hallway."

We both start to walk towards the cafeteria.

"But we can't do that here" She continues. "This is real life… probably"

"What?" I say confused.

"Well I mean it's possible we're all in some kind of movie or video game right now." She explains.

I laugh at her comment. "No. If this is some kind of fictional world it's definitely a fan fiction."

We stay silent for a few moments. While the author contemplates deleting that line

"Anyway don't get off topic." Monika continues. "You could've gotten in a lot of trouble for something like that."

"Alright, I wont do it again." I reassure her.

"I'm not lecturing you." She says sincerely. "I just don't want you to get in trouble."

"I know." I reply

"I care about you." She says lovingly.

I grab Monika's hand and our fingers intertwine. "I know." I say with a smile.

We get our lunch and sit together. After awhile Melony walks up to our table and sits with us.

"Hey guys" She greets us. "Sorry, we didn't have too much time to talk yesterday. But I wanted to get to know you a bit more Monika."

Monika smiled at her. "Oh, that's sweet of you."

"Well I just watched a movie about a guy who transfers to a new school and no one hangs out with him because he's new and he ends up getting murdered because he's always alone." She responds. "Not that I think that will happen to you or anything. Unless Dean's plotting something."

We sit in silence for a second from that last comment.

"Sorry." Melony apologises. "That was weird to say."

I laugh awkwardly. "It's fine. Thanks for being friendly."

Melony smiles then looks over to Monika. "So, my boyfriend is taking me shopping today. And I know you just moved here. And I couldn't help but notice you've been wearing Dean's clothes to school. So I was wondering if you two wanted to come with us. Make it a double date?"

"What a coincidence." Monika says. "We were actually planning on doing exactly that."

"No way." Melony says laughing. "Well, then I guess you wouldn't mind coming."

"We'd love to right Dean." Monika says as she looks at me.

"Uh… yeah, why not." I say trying to hide my awkwardness.

"Alright let's meet up after school and we can drive there together." Melony says as she walks off. "See you then."

After lunch is over I sit through my classes yet again, trying to work harder than usual. Once my last class ends I walk out to the front of the school to find Monika talking with Melony and her boyfriend, Derek.

I approach them and Monika greets me. "Hey Dean you ready to go?"

"Yeah." I look over to Derek and Melony. "So I'll just follow you guys."

Melony chuckles then quickly wipes her smile.

Derek speaks up. "Yeah, it's not too far from here. Thanks for coming by the way. I hate going into Victoria's Secret with her."

I laugh at his comment. "No problem."

"Alright let's head out!" Melony says excited.

Monika and I hop into my car while Melony and Derek get into theirs.

"Alright. Hopefully, this won't be too awkward." I think to myself. "It'll be fine. Just focus on that Virgin Killer Sweater."

I turn on the engine and follow Derek's car out of the parking lot.

* * *

And done! Damn, I think that might be the longest chapter so far. I guess that's only fair since I made you guys wait so long.

I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out but hopefully, it'll be soon.

Thank you so much for your support and patience and just all my bullshit in general. You guys are amazing.


	9. Chapter 9

Blah Blah Blah Let's just get into the story.

Translation: Thank you all for the support on the last chapter. I hope you all enjoy what I have next.

Also no you didn't skip a chapter. I renumbered them because I didn't like seeing 'Chapter 6 and a half.'

* * *

After driving for several minutes we finally arrived at the nearby mall. Derek and I both found separate parking spots and regrouped at the front entrance.

"Hey you guys have to settle something for us," Melony says as we approach the two of them. "In a relationship, you should tell everything to your significant other. Right?"

"Of course." Monika answers.

"Oh come on. That's not enough context." Derek says before looking at us. "I had a conversation with a friend who told me not to tell anyone about what he said."

"That doesn't apply to your girlfriend!" Melony interrupts.

Derek sighs. "Well if it has nothing to do with you then why do you need to know?"

"Because we're a couple," Melony argues. "We need to be on the same wavelength. Share the same thoughts and all of that."

"That's why I feel Dean's heartbeat every night." Monika laughs out.

"Yeah!" Melony says enthusiastically before her face morphs into a confused expression. "Wait what?"

At this point, I decided to finally speak up. "Alright! How about we head inside." I say trying to change the subject.

"Good idea," Derek says, walking into the mall with all of us following.

Upon entering the building were greeted by large groups of people populating the area. To the left of us is a section of the mall dedicated to food courts. To the right is a large JCPenney, taking up almost a quarter of the building. Straight ahead is the rest of the mall fit with escalators multiple floors and various different stores.

"So, where should we start?" Melony asks.

I can't tell if she's genuinely asking us or if she's just voicing her thoughts out loud. Melony has always been a fairly energetic and intriguing person. It's hard to tell what she's thinking or why she does certain things.

After a few seconds of silence, Derek brings up a suggestion. "How about we-"

"Oh! Monika, I know the best clothes store for you." Melony says excitedly, interrupting and ignoring Derek.

Derek sighs as we all follow Melony.

I always found it weird why the two of them got together. They seemed to be polar opposites and often Derek seems genuinely annoyed with her. I chopped it down to just Melony being her usual playful self and Derek just playing along but I'm curious as to how long a relationship like that can last. It just confuses my what two completely different people would ever see in each other.

"Okay I'm a bit lost." Melony say stopping in her tracks with all of us doing the same.

"What store were you looking for?" Derek asks.

Melony thinks to herself for a second. "I forgot the name of it."

Derek sighs. "How could you forget the name?" We've been here thousands of times."

"I don't know the sign looks weird," Melony says in an attempt to defend herself.

Suddenly Monika laughs to herself.

Melony looks back at her questioningly. "What's so funny?" She says, stifling a laugh herself.

"Nothing," Monika says. "You just remind me of a friend from my old school."

Monika's comment takes me by surprise. "What old school?" I think to myself. "What friend? Wait is she talking about-"

"Oh! Here's a nice store we can go to." Melony suddenly says, taking me out of my thoughts.

Melony, followed by Monika, walk into one of the nearby stores. Derek smiles to himself before following them in.

I approach the store and look at the sign above the entrance. It reads 'Aéropostale'.

I hear Monika call for me from inside the store. "Dean come over here."

I enter the store and scan the room for Monika. Once I see her I walk over to her.

"What do you think of this?" She says as she holds a shirt up to her chest.

The T-shirt is light pink with faded drawings of roses covering half of the shirt.

"I like it," I say. "The roses are a deal breaker for me obviously."

Monika giggles. "I thought so. I'm definitely getting it then. Something to remind me of my special rose."

"Aw you guys have pet names," Melony says, who was looking at shirts a few feet away. She looks over to Derek who was awkwardly standing in the middle of the store. "Derek, why don't we have pet names?"

He walks over to her and says, "What do you want your pet name to be?"

"Melony sighs, annoyed. "That's not how it works. You have to come up with one for me."

Derek shakes his head and goes back to aimlessly walking around the store.

"Hey Dean." Monika says, bringing my attention back to her. "This look familiar?" She smirks at me and holds up a white tank top.

I look at the top curiously for a few seconds trying to recognize it.

"Oh, it looks just like the one from the valentines day fanart," I say.

"Correct!" Monika says happily. "Maybe one day we can reenact that picture."

While saying this, Monika leans forward slightly while holding her hands behind her back. I look at her, confused until I realize what she's doing.

"Are you doing the pose?" I ask her, laughing slightly.

Monika laughs then reverts to a normal standing position. "I was feeling nostalgic. I had to." She says playfully.

At this point Melony approaches us with Derek following behind her, holding various amounts of clothes.

"Alright. I got everything I need." She says. "You guys ready to go?"

"I think so." Monika replies. "I got a couple tops and a few pairs of jeans."

Melony looks over everything Monika is holding. "We're gonna have to show off our best outfits at school tomorrow," Melony says.

We all go to the check out where Derek and I pay for the clothes.

"I hope it's not too much," Monika says, worried.

"Not at all," I reassure her. "I have a couple hundred dollars in my bank account so you have nothing to worry about."

After the purchases have been made we all leave the store.

Melony speaks up. "So I had an idea. How about we have everyone pick one store to go to. That way we won't spend too much."

"Thank you," Derek says silently.

"Monika, where do you wanna go next?" Melony asks.

Monika has an embarrassed look on her face. "Well, I don't really know that many American stores…"

"Oh yeah you're from Japan. I forgot about that." Melony says.

"Well I'm sure I'll find somewhere that looks interesting." Monika says. "For now, Dean why don't you pick a place."

"Uh… I-I don't know many places either." I stutter out, embarrassed.

"Oh come on," Melony says. "Where do you usually get your clothes from?"

I laugh awkwardly as the three wait for me to answer.

"H-Hot Topic," I say quietly, trying to play it off as a joke.

"Oh, I love that place!" Melony says, much to my surprise. "They always have such cool band tees. Let's go!"

Melony walks off, dragging Derek along with him.

Monika pulls me aside. "So why were you so embarrassed to say it?" She asks.

"Well…" I try to explain myself. "Hot Topic is kinda like 'the' emo store."

"So what?" Monika asks confused.

"Well, it's just kinda embarrassing to say you shop there." I clarify. "It's like admitting your emo."

Monika smiles at me. "Dean don't be embarrassed about things you like. And who cares if you're emo? You're who you are and you should be proud of that."

I smile back at Monika. "Thanks. You're right I'm being dumb."

Monika gives me a smirk as a small blush appears on her cheeks. "Plus I think black looks really sexy on you."

She then walks ahead to catch up with the others.

"I love her so much." I think to myself as I follow her back to the other two.

After a short walk, we arrive at the store. Melony and Derek have already entered. The former was looking through all the different buttons they had at the front desk. The latter was looking through a couple t-shirts.

Derek holds up a Guns and Roses t-shirt and grins to himself after seeing it.

"They have some nice band tees here," Derek says before looking over at me. "Good call Dean."

I give him a small nod and smile as to say "You're welcome". I then head to the back of the store where I find Monika looking through the various anime themed clothing.

She spots me and gives me a concerned look. "There's a lot of stuff from video games and anime here."

"Yeah they have a lot of different franchises here," I reply.

Monika continues. "So is there anything from…"

I wait for her to finish before I realize what she's about to say.

"No there's nothing from Doki Doki Literature Club," I reassure her. "Yet."

We sit in silence for a few moments.

"She did you find anything you like?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

Monika smirks at me. "Well, I found a few things _you_ might like."

She then shows me two items that she'd been holding. A pair of fishnet stockings and a spiked choker with a heart ring in the center.

A slight blush appeared on my face as I imagine Monika wearing these. I stay silent but it's obvious what my opinion is on them.

"Glad you like them." She says in a flirty voice. "I wasn't sure if you'd want the choker around my neck or your hands.

Monika blushes slightly from her own flirting.

"Y-you're making it sound like I have a BDSM fetish," I say, jokingly.

Monika looks at me questioningly.

"I don't." I clarify. "I mean I guess if you really wanted me to tie you up…"

"Okay!" Monika cuts me off, her blush growing larger. "How about we wait until we've actually had sex before we get into that stuff."

"So do you want to have sex?" I say half-jokingly.

Monika blushes madly but maintains a serious but innocent expression. "Well… I mean, do you want to?"

I inhale, as to say something but I fail to find the right words to answer that question. I decided to say exactly what I'm thinking.

"Yes," I say in a very serious tone.

Monika nearly jumps at the sudden response but manages to compose herself.

"I-I do too." She says in a similar tone to mine.

We stare at each other in silence for a couple seconds before Melony and Derek approach us.

"Hey, you guys ready to go," Melony asks.

She's holding two t-shirts with various different buttons resting on top of them.

Monika and I look over at them with blushes covering our faces.

"Uh… Y-yeah we're ready." Monika says trying to act natural.

Derek gives me a strange look that seems to be a mix of suspicion and relief.

"Alright let's check out then," Melony says.

We purchase all our items and exit the store.

"So Derek it's your turn to pick a store," Melony says.

"Pass," Derek says.

"What? You can't pass. We've only been to two stores." she complains.

"Well I don't know what to pick. I'm not a huge fan of shopping." he replies.

Monika then speaks up. "How about I pick one. I saw a store that I thought look interesting on the way here."

The three of us followed Monika as she lead us to the place she mentioned.

"Here it is." She says as she walks into a store.

I look around, trying to understand what kind of place it is. From the different clothes that they have on display, it seems that it's some kind of cosplay/ anime store. Filled with all kinds of Japanese themed clothes.

"Is this an anime store?" Melony asks out loud.

"It looks like it." Monika answers. "But they seem to have more normal clothes too."

"Hmm, I didn't think you'd be into anime-type stuff." Derek says. "Although I guess it makes sense considering where you came from."

Monika and I look at him, worried.

"What do you mean?" Monika says nervously.

"Well because you're from Japan so I guess it would make sense for you to be into anime." He clarifies. "Sorry was that racist?"

Both Monika and I sigh in relief.

"No it's just…" Monika tries to find an excuse but fails. "Nevermind."

"That reminds me." I whisper to Monika. "Is it safe for you to be here? I mean people who shop here are pretty likely to have at least heard of DDLC."

"Don't worry about it." Monika reassures me. "I'm starting to think that I can't be recognized."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Monika continues. "I overheard two guys talking about Doki Doki Literature Club after school. And one of the guys is my partner in chemistry class. He's never even mentioned the game to me before. He even forgot my name at one point."

"How is that possible?" I ask. "Does the shorter hair really make you look that different?"

"Even if it does that wouldn't explain how he forget my name," Monika replies. "I mean he mentioned my name a few times when he was talking to his friend about the game."

"None of this makes any sense," I say to myself.

I look up to see that we've walked to the back of the store.

I chuckle. "I didn't even realize we were walking…"

I look at Monika who has a large blush on her face and seems to be looking at something. I follow her eyes to see that she's looking at a specific piece of clothing. It's a gray sweater with no back or sleeves. Simply a long piece of cloth to cover the front parts of someone's body. The virgin killer sweater.

I look back at Monika who shyly looks back at me with a blush covering her face. I take the sweater off the rack and hold it up to Monika with a smirk on my face.

"Think this will fit you?" I ask.

Monika embarrassingly looks over it. "I-it's a bit too sma-"

"Perfect." I sinisterly.

I then fold it up to disguise it as a regular sweater and walk back to the front of the store.

"Hey, guys I think we're ready to go," I say to Melony and Derek.

"Cool." Melony replies. "So what'd you get Monika?"

"J-just a few skirts." She says, trying to hide her embarrassment.

We head to the checkout and purchase our items.

"Did you see the weird stuff in the back?" Melony asks jokingly.

"Nope! Let's go!" Monika replies as we all exit the store.

"Okay so since Derek didn't choose a store that means I get to pick another one," Melony says. "But the boys have to stay behind."

"What why?" Derek asks.

"Because we're going to Victoria's Secret." She answers. "So unless you guys wanna awkwardly stand around and underwear store trying not to look like perverts you should stay behind."

With that, Derek and I give Melony and Monika our credit cards as they both walk off to Victoria's Secret, leaving Derek and me alone.

We walk around in silence for a bit before he decides to break the silence.

"So you and Monika seem happy together." He says.

"Yeah, we are," I reply.

We stay in silence for a bit longer.

Derek speaks up again. "Yeah, Melony is always making me take her shopping so…"

"Yeah, I know," I reply soon after realizing my mistake. "I mean I don't know."

I awkwardly laugh to try to kill the tension. It doesn't work. We stay in silence again.

"Okay, this is awkward right?" Derek says. "I mean we both know that I know."

"Wait she told you?" I say nervously.

"Oh God, you didn't know," Derek says to himself.

"I mean I guess I should've known that she'd tell you," I admit.

Yet again we stay silent.

"You know what," Derek starts. "Why don't we just put it all out there."

"Okay…" I say worried and confused.

Derek continues. "Look, I'm gonna be honest. I planned to beat the shit out of you the first time I saw you. I was pissed at you. She tried to convince me that you weren't like that anymore but… When I saw you talking to Melony that one day after school I almost lost it. But then she told me that you had a girlfriend now. So I thought 'Okay maybe this guy really has changed.' Melony wanted me to meet you and that's kinda why we're here right now. I still wasn't sure about you but after I saw you with Monika… You love her that's obvious."

Derek then stops walking and outstretches his hand toward me. "So let's just put that all aside for now. Clean slate. All that shit."

I grab his hand and we shake.

"Thanks for not beating the shit out of me," I say jokingly. "And yeah I do love her… Monika! That is. I love Monika."

Derek laughs and I laugh along with him.

We walk for a bit longer until _I_ decide to break the ice.

"So, weird question, what do you see in Melony?" I ask. "I mean you guys are like polar opposites."

"I don't know. Opposites attract I guess." He replies. "I've been with girls who are like me and it never goes well. When two people who are exactly alike are together it's like a constant competition of who can be more like… themselves I guess. Sorry, this isn't making any sense."

"No, I think I get it," I reply. "If the two are alike it only amplifies the parts of yourself that don't need to be amplified. So when two people are different it brings out another side of each of them. It's like sticking two different puzzle pieces together vs. two identical pieces."

Derek chuckles. "That was poetic."

"I get it from Monika," I say.

"Alright, they're probably gonna be in there for awhile." He says. "You wanna get some food."

"Sure," I reply.

We both walk towards the food court before Derek stops.

"Oh wait they have our cards." He says.

"Oh yeah," I reply stupidly.

After what feels like hours the girls return from Victoria's secret with new bags in their hands.

"Finally," Derek says in relief after seeing them. "Alright, it's like almost 8 we should get going."

"Yeah let's go," Monika says coldly as she walks past us to the exit.

"Is she alright?" Derek asks.

"Dean I'm so sorry," Melony says. "I thought she knew."

"What did you say?" I ask in a serious voice.

"Nothing," Melony says nervously. "Really I just made a little joke and… I'm so sorry."

I sigh out loud. "It's fine. It's my fault for not telling her in the first place."

I go to follow Monika out but I stop and turn back to Derek and Melony.

"This was fun," I say. "Like really I had a great time, all things considered. We should do this again."

"Sure. You guys are pretty chill." Derek says.

"I'd love to hang out again," Melony says. "Now go talk to her. I haven't known her that long but she seems like a nice person. She'll understand if you just explain."

I smile at both of them. "Thanks, guys." I then head to the exit and follow Monika to the car.

* * *

Okay, I know you guys have been waiting so long for me to reveal Dean's past but you'll have to wait just a bit longer. I'm writing the next chapter right now so don't worry. You won't have to wait a week.

Again thank you guys so much for all the support. I've been having a blast writing this even if I don't do it often. Just seeing how much you guys love this story really inspires me to keep writing. Thank you.

And with that said. I'll see you guys next time. I have a feeling you're gonna really like the next chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

Here we go. This is when it all goes down. You ready? I hope so. And I hope even more that you're not disappointed.

Also, I have a little announcement for you guys in the ending author's note. So make sure you read that after the story.

* * *

I exit the mall and approach my car to see Monika sitting inside. I enter the car and start it.

Monika is silent.

I begin talking. "Look I don't know what she already told you but…"

I trail off, trying to find the right words.

"Okay." I continue. "Let's just get home and I'll explain everything there."

The long drive that followed was completely silent. Neither of us said a word to the other. I spent the entire ride thinking about what to say, how to say it, when to say it.

The drive lasted for what felt like an eternity. Once we got home I was still completely clueless on what to say. We entered the house and went straight to my room.

I hated the fact that Monika was mad at me. I hated the fact that she wouldn't talk to me. I hated all of this. I just wanted to hug her and not have to talk about any of this.

Suddenly I felt Monika's arms wrap around me from behind.

"I love you." She said with a shaky voice. "I can't stand the thought that I'm not good enough for you-"

I had no idea how to tell her anything. But after hearing that everything I did next came completely natural.

I turned around to face Monika and pulled her into the tightest, most heartfelt hug I could muster.

"Don't ever say something like that again," I said. "You are perfect for me. There is no one in this world that is better for me." I felt my voice also start to shake as water started to creep into my eyes. "I love you. I love you so much. You mean everything to me and the thought of losing you makes me want to die."

I slowly released her from the hug and looked into her eyes which wore a shocked expression.

"Don't ever think that you're anything but perfect for me," I said as my eyes filled with tears.

After a while, we both started to calm down.

"So." I continue. "What did she tell you."

Monika wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and told me. "She just said something about… stalking."

I sighed to myself.

"Dean, what happened?" Monika asked.

Without a word I took out my phone and turned on its flashlight. I then brought it over my left arm and showed it to Monika.

"Look closely," I said.

Confused, Monika inspected my arm.

She squinted her eyes before gasping and looking at me, worried.

"Dean are those… scars." She asked.

"They've mostly healed but you can still see them if you look close enough," I replied.

"What are they from?" Monika asked, already knowing the answer.

I took a deep breath before answering. "Cutting."

Monika didn't say anything. She simply looked at me with confusion and worry.

"I don't do it anymore," I explain. "I stopped about a year ago."

Monika speaks up. "S-so why did you do it? Were you depressed?"

"No," I answer. "Not really at least. I did it because I liked the feeling. That burning sensation with the occasional sting. I loved it. And I loved just looking at it. Seeing all of the cuts I made just…"

Monika went back to being silent.

I sigh as I continue. "I was a very different person a few years ago. I thought I was insane. Or more like I wanted to be. And I was willing to do anything to prove to myself and others that I was. I know how weird that sounds. I wanted to be insane. It's just stupid looking back on it now."

Monika was still silent. I can tell she was hanging on to every word but she just didn't know what to say.

So I continued. "So 'what does this have to do with Melony' I know. Well, I used to stalk her. I would be late to class just so I could watch her enter her's. Once I got my car I would follow her home and… You get the idea."

"Why her?" Monika asked.

I thought for a second before answering. "Melony was also very different back then. She was quiet and didn't really spend time with anyone. She just had this weird vibe to her. I thought she was like me. I thought she was insane. Turns out, she was just depressed. Her mom died a week prior to starting high school and she was going through a really rough time. God, I'm such an asshole."

I stop talking after the last sentence as I mentally punch myself for being so stupid.

"Hey," Monika says to get my attention as she grabs my hand. "You're not an asshole. We've all done stupid things in the past."

"Some more than others," I reply. "That's not all of it. Once Melony met Derek she started becoming happier. That's probably around the time when she noticed I was stalking her. I thought he was just manipulating her. Changing her. That sounds so fucking stupid now. Anyway, they started dating soon after they met. When I saw them holding hands in that hallway… It felt like something broke inside me. Like I just let go of whatever grip I still had on my sanity."

I took another deep breath before continuing in a serious voice. "I planned to kill Derek."

Monika looked at me with eyes that made me feel like a monster.

"Yeah… that's the part that no one knows about." I continued. "It wasn't just a thought either. I was really gonna go through with it. I studied his day to day routine, I got any information I can on his family. I even decided on a murder weapon. Eventually, I figured out when and how I was gonna do it. I played it out a million times in my head and I was completely ready to do it. So one night I broke into his house and stood over him while he sleeping, ready to do it. But then I had this... epiphany. Like I realized what I was doing and how fucked up it was. I'd just broken into a guys house and I was now going to stab him to death because he was dating a girl I liked. I just realized how fucked that was."

I looked at Monika who was still keeping silent.

I continued on. "After that… Something changed. I stopped stalking Melony. I stopped cutting. I stopped everything. I was just… dead. I felt like I lost a part of myself. Like I forgot who I was. I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, I didn't want to talk to people, I didn't even want to eat. I felt so broken.

Monika brought me into a hug in an attempt to comfort me.

"Then I met you." I continued. "Talking to you every day through my computer made me happy. Seeing you every day gave me hope. You saved my fucking life."

At this point, I dissolved into a mess of tears. I hugged Monika back as tightly as I could. Tears were streaming down my face. I desperately tried to stay quiet so Monika wouldn't hear me cry.

We stayed in each other's arms for what felt like forever until I started to calm down. We both released from the hug and looked into each other's tear-stained eyes.

"You're better than me," Monika said.

"What?" I said, confused.

Monika continued. "At least you didn't murder anyone. I killed three people."

Suddenly I realized what she was talking about. "Monika you didn't-"

"No. I know what I did." She told me. "I guess in a way, we're not too different. We were both alone and sought comfort in someone who seemed to be like us. Then we both did horrible things so that we could be with them. I even tried cutting too."

I cringed at the thought of that note from the game. The words 'Today I cut my skin open for the first time." echoed through my mind along with the blood smear on the same paper. It pained me to know that someone else would do that to themselves. Especially someone I cared about.

"But you were better than me." Monika continued. "There was enough good inside of you to not go through with it. But I was completely broken. I killed them. I killed them and then joked about it. I'm the real insane one here."

"Monika. What you did was very complicated." I said trying to reassure her. "You went through so many horrible things. Much more than I've ever gone through. It would be insane if you didn't do what you did. Anyone put into that situation would've done the same. You're not a bad person."

"Neither are you." She said back.

I brought her into one last hug.

"I love you my special rose."

"I love you too ḿ̶̘̪͇͔̂y̷̰̖̌́ͅͅ ̴͎̏̀k̷͙͖̑͗͘n̴͇̱͉̤͐̾͘͘i̵͖̯͌f̷̥̫͉͆̔̿ë̶͓̜́͜ ̷͚̯͗q̷̘̽̐̕ṷ̵͚͐͜ĕ̷͚̪̚͜è̷̯̔̒́n̷̡̉

* * *

Well, that's it. The moment you've all been waiting for. Did you like it? Where you surprised? Did you predict it already? Leave a review telling me what you thought.

So you're probably wondering what the fuck happened at the end there. Well, that has to do with my announcement.

I'm writing another story. You're probably wondering what that has to do with this story. Well, this new story I'm writing takes place in an alternate universe where instead of Monika coming into Dean's reality, Yuri does. The story is titled 'The Knife & The Rose' and it will share a lot of the same elements as this one. If you're interested, check it out.

Now, this doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing this story. Monika is still my favorite doki and I still have a lot of ideas for this story. I just wanted to have something else on the side.

So I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are going to check out my new story. Thank you for your continued support and I'll see you next time.


	11. Important Anouncment

Hey. Sorry if you thought that this was another chapter but it's not. If you're from the future (meaning if there are chapters after this) then you can just skip to the next chapter. Unless you're interested in the story's history.

I kinda have some bad news for you guys.

As you all know I've been gone for the past few... I don't even know how long it's been. It doesn't matter, the point is I haven't updated the story in a really long fucking time. Although you guys probably aren't surprised at this point. This isn't even the first time I've done this. But rather than keep you guys in the dark for god knows how long I decided to just tell you outright what's going on.

First off, I want to say that chapter 10 was not the end of the story. I plan to continue much farther than that and I have lots of ideas on where to go from here. However, I can't really write the next chapters right now. And that's what I wanted to talk about.

I don't really go to a regular school. It's technically a public school but it doesn't act like one. The point is I have a lot of fucking work to do in school. I've always had a hard time balancing school and my free time and as you can probably tell I'm kinda failing to do that right now. But a couple things just happened at school that's gonna make the next few weeks very challenging and frustrating for me. And I don't think I'm gonna have time to write.

Writing this story has been a blast. I never thought I would have so much fun doing this. I might even be considering being an author a potential career path for me. However, even though it's been fun, it's also been really stressful. The main problem with writing this is that I was releasing chapters as I was writing them. As opposed to writing a couple chapters then releasing them one at a time. Because of this I always felt like I was behind. Whenever I uploaded a chapter I felt the need to release another one as soon as possible, even though I hadn't started writing one yet. I felt like I was letting you guys down by not releasing a chapter for a long period of time. And it got even worse once the depression kicked in.

A little while ago I was going through a lot of shit and I was really fucking depressed I didn't feel motivation to do anything and it really fucked up my day to day life. I'm still playing catch-up in school from that time. And now with everything that's happing in school right now, I'm afraid that I might fall back into it if I try to write this story while dealing with all of it.

Alright, this is getting too long.

The point is, you guys and the DDLC community, in general, have been so great to me and helped me through some rough shit. That's why I don't wanna give up on this story. That's why, instead of ending it, I'm gonna be taking a small hiatus.

I don't know how long I'll be gone. I can tell you that when summer comes along I'll have a lot more time to write so it probably won't last longer than that. And when I do come back I'm gonna write a bunch of chapters and release them one at a time like I should've been doing so it won't be so hectic.

I'm really sorry. I picked a bad time to write this story and I didn't think it would get so big so fast. And I was irresponsible with the whole way I went about writing this. And I was stupid to think that I could balance this with school. I'm sorry that you guys have to face the consequences of my mistakes.

I'm so sorry.

I'll be back as soon as I can.

I love you all. Thank you for dealing with all of my bullshit.

Till next time.


	12. Chapter 11

Guess who's back! Wait, is anyone actually still here? Well for those of you that haven't lost interest in this story, my hiatus is finally over and I'm ready to write again!

Thank you all so much for dealing with my bullshit. Seriously, you guys are awesome. I can't express that enough.

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for, the continuation of The Emerald and The Rose.

* * *

My eyes slowly blinked open to reveal a blurry mess. After a couple blinks my vision somewhat cleared and I was able to make out my room. I laid lazily on my bed, attempting to gain the energy to get up and continuously blinking away the blurriness from my eyes. After a few seconds, I forced myself to sit up, just to fall back down again.

"Geez, you must be exhausted" I heard Monika say.

"I feel like I've been asleep for years." I barely manage to mumble out. "Or more accurately, 3 months."

Monika giggled at me before saying, "Well there's no rush. It's the weekend. A three day weekend actually."

Somehow hearing that gave me the energy to prop myself up on my arm.

"That's fucking amazing. I'm so sick of school." I say while spotting Monika doing her make-up in the mirror.

She turns to face me, revealing her beautiful green eyes. Seeing her gives me a nostalgic feeling.

"My thoughts exactly." She says while walking over to the bed. "No school, no distractions." Monika leans over me and smiles at me seductively.

I notice she's wearing a tight T-shirt with no bra underneath. I can tell she's not wearing one because I can see two distinct dots around her chest area.

I decided to play along. "And what were you thinking of doing during all that time?"

"Let me show you," Monika says before leaning in closer and placing her lips on mine.

The kiss eventually went deeper until it turned into a full makeout session. Monika climbed on top of me with her legs resting on either side of me. She brought her hands down to my chest and slowly started to stroke them downwards. Similarly, I brought my hands up to her hips and slowly stroked upwards. She eventually made her way down to my dick and slowly started to stroke it back and forth through my pants. I slid my arms up against her body to her breasts and began to knead them with each hand.

After a few minutes of this, she grabbed onto my wrists and pinned them down over my head. She then brought her crotch down to mine and started to grind onto it. We continued to make out. I felt an occasional moan exit her mouth and enter mine. The exchange felt magical.

I was almost at my limit so I pulled away to tell her. "Monika I'm-"

Suddenly, the door flung open and a woman walked through. "Yo Dean I'm-"

She cut herself off, almost choking on her words as she saw us. Monika quickly jumped off of me and I quickly sat up in my bed.

The woman held in a chuckle as she said, "Oh didn't realize you had company. I'll wait in the living room."

And with that she left the room, making sure to close the door behind her. Monika looked at me, confused. I looked back at her and started laughing at what just happened. This seemed to only confuse her more but that didn't stop her from growing a smile on her face.

My laughter started to fade and I opened my mouth to explain. "That was… my sister."

Monika looked slightly shocked "What? Since when do you have a sister?"

I stood up from the bed. "Since I was born I would assume."

Monika rolled her eyes at me. "I meant why didn't you tell me?"

I walked over to the closet and threw on a shirt. "I could've sworn I did. Anyway, now would be a great time to meet her."

Monika blushed "Yeah, great time."

I opened the door and walked out to the living room with Monika following behind. We entered the living room to see my sister sitting on the couch.

"You guys have fun?" She said with a smirk.

I replied with a simple, "Shut up. What do you want."

"What I can't just stop by and see how my little brother's doing?" She said.

I stayed quiet, looking at her suspiciously.

"Mom said she was gonna be working late and told me to look after you for a couple days." She admitted.

I chucked to myself. "She's been working late for a few days now. She just told you?"

"Yeah well, you know mom." She said before looking past me towards Monika.

"So who's you're uh… friend." She asked.

"Girlfriend. And it's Monika." Monika said with a hint of awkwardness.

"Oh well good to see Dean finally left his room and met someone." She said, unknowingly. "I'm Rebecca, but you can call me Reb."

Monika looked at her curiously. "Huh, I thought it would've started with an M."

We stood in silence for a moment.

"Okay… Well nice to meet you." Reb said. "By the way Dean I noticed you went on a bit of a shopping spree."

"Yeah, so what? I didn't go past my limit." I replied

"I know, but spending that much on a girl?" Reb looked at both of us. "How long have you guys been dating?"

Monika spoke up. "We've been talking online for a few months now but we just met in person a few days ago."

Reb chuckled. "You two have been talking for that long? And I never heard about it?" There was doubt laced in her tone. She looked over at me. "How is that even possible? All you've been doing on your computer is playing that hentai game."

Monika blushed. "It's not a hentai game." She said, embarrassed.

Reb looked at her suspiciously then looked back at me. "Wait does she play it too? Ha! That actually makes a lot more sense. What did you guys meet in a chat room or something?"

"God how old are you?" I said mockingly. "No one uses chat rooms anymore. We met on Reddit."

As I said this a thought popped into my head. "Shit. Has Monika seen my Reddit posts?"

Reb was still suspicious. "Okay, so you guys met online. Then what did you guys find out you went to the same school or something?"

"Actually, I came from Japan." Monika answered.

Reb chuckled as if it was a joke but quickly realized no one else was laughing.

"Okay, now I'm calling bullshit." She said bluntly. "There is no fucking way my brother not only met someone online but also convinced them to move across the world to be with him."

She looked at Monika. "Tell me the truth. He conjured you up with black magic."

"Nope," Monika said happily. "I just love him."

"Okay, so he brainwashed you?" Reb asked.

"Nope," Monika said again. "I just really love him."

I couldn't help but smile at her comments. She's obviously trying to get a reaction out of me.

Reb still wasn't convinced. "So then what? Are you an anime character who jumped out of his computer?"

"N-" Monika cut herself off, caught off guard by the question.

I decided to step in "Reb what's with the questions? Is it that hard to believe that a girl would be genuinely interested in me?"

Reb pauses for a second. "Alright sorry. It's just… Dean the last time I saw you was when you opened your door for a split second so I can hand you food. Now all of a sudden you're out and about with your new girlfriend, going to the mall and shit? What happened?"

I thought to myself for a second. "Monika happened," I said. "Ever since she showed up things have been getting better."

I saw Monika smile at me in the corner of my eye. Reb also gave me a small smile.

"Whatever. It's good to see you again Dean." She said sincerely. "I was worried. You know I actually care about you."

"Yeah, you're the only family member that does." I said only half joking.

"Hey, don't say that. Mom cares, she's just… busy." Reb said back.

I rolled my eyes "Whatever. We're gonna go back to my room. Don't barge in again."

Reb chuckled "Okay have fun."

Monika and I head back to my room and she shuts the door behind us.

"So… you wanna continue." She asks.

"I don't know," I said. "I kinda lost the mood after talking about my mom."

"That's fine." She said, considerately. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." I replied, sitting down on the bed.

Monika sat down next to me. "You know, you weren't shaking at all while you were asleep. And you woke up pretty normally. Did you have any nightmares?"

I think about it for a second. "Now that you mention it, no."

"Well, that's good." Monika said cheerfully.

We sat in silence for a moment.

"Do you wanna talk about the nightmares?" She asked.

"Maybe another time" I replied.

"That's fine," Monika repeated. "Do you wanna watch anime together."

I smiled at her. "Fuck yeah."

* * *

Well, that took awhile to write. Maybe I'm just rusty from not writing for a while.

Anyway, I'm back! Again sorry I kept you guys waiting so long. I just really wasn't up to writing. The beginning of this chapter was actually a metaphor for me trying to write. I was just too stressed and wasn't feeling up to it. But I've got a hell of a lot of free time now that it's summer and this is a good way of keeping myself busy.

Lastly, and I know I'm repeating myself but, thank you guys so much for all the support. Seeing your guy's reviews and watching the follow count for this story slowly raise is the main reason why I keep writing.

I'd especially like to thank elementalheroshadow for his insane amount of support. Thanks, man. He's actually working on a DDLC story of his own, which is really good. It's called 'Forever Mine' if you guys are interested.

And with that, I bid you all a farewell.


End file.
